“Doing This Work Is Helpful and Also Harmful”: The Intersections of Early Young Adult Civic Engagement and Well-Being

• In Event: Educators, Youth, and Policy Mediation and Sensemaking at the Local Level

Abstract

Existing research on the links between civic engagement, well-being, and young adults' racialized identities and experiences is still emerging. Sitting at the intersections of education and health policy, this exploratory, critical qualitative study begins to explore these links through an analysis of interviews with a purposeful sample of 21 young adults. Findings suggest that civic engagement might have a reciprocal relationship to young adults' feelings of hopelessness, mental health, sense of belonging, and belief in the power of the collective. Implications include a call for multiple domains of social policy to attend to the unique civic and health needs of this group.

Authors

• Kristin Sinclair, Georgetown University

• Luisa Godinez Puig, Urban Institute

• Karishma Furtado, Urban Institute

• Yuv Sachdeva, Rice University