Civic Engagement and the Civic Voluntarism Model: What Shapes Students’ Willingness to Participate During Adolescence?

• In Event: Factors Shaping Participation and Outcomes of Participation From Childhood Through Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Citizens’ willingness to participate in political and civic life is essential to modern democracies. However, conventional forms of civic engagement are on the decline in many liberal democracies, a trend that is particularly pronounced among youth and young adults. This decline underscores the importance of understanding the factors that shape adolescents’ intentions to participate in civic and political activities. The Civic Voluntarism Model is a widely used theoretical framework for identifying these factors, positing that political participation depends on individuals possessing relevant resources, being psychologically engaged, and being recruited by their social and societal context. While the Civic Voluntarism Model has been extensively applied in cross-sectional studies with adults, its application to adolescents remains limited. Given that intentions to participate in later life are often formed and solidified during adolescence, investigating these developmental changes during this critical period is crucial. Furthermore, the educational context plays a vital role in shaping these intentions by equipping adolescents with the knowledge and skills necessary for civic engagement. Moreover, school is an important point of reference for adolescent’s social environment.
Drawing on the Civic Voluntarism Model, this study aims to determine whether and how adolescents’ resources (i.e., political knowledge, socioeconomic background, cultural capital), psychological engagement (political interest and efficacy), and recruitment (peers’ participatory attitudes, discussions, and school track) are associated to the current levels and predict the development of three types of intended participation (civic engagement, activism, voting) among high school students from Grade 7 to 8.
For this purpose, we conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses with data from N = 444 German students (Grade 7: Mage = 12.51; 46.9% female; 45.4% with an immigrant background). Data were collected on-site in each class separately (N = 25 classes) and analyzed using structural equation models with robust standard errors to account for the clustered data.
Overall, our models indicated positive associations between the CVM components and intended participation, with considerable variation between the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. For the cross-sectional analyses (Grade 7), we found statistically significant positive associations between political interest and all examined forms of intended participation. The longitudinal analyses showed that socioeconomic background was related to all forms of intended participation. The results for other predictors varied substantially depending on the type of intended participation. For example, the included predictors explained the most variance in students’ willingness to vote (36%) and the least for students’ activism (19%).
Future studies should strive to systematically investigate these differences and inspect the specific interplay between the predictors. The consistent longitudinal findings on socioeconomic status point toward the need to counteract political inequality through measures such as civic education. Integrating comprehensive civic education programs in school curricula can enhance students’ civic literacy, foster engagement, and provide equal opportunities for all students to develop the competencies required for active participation in society and politics.

Authors

• Pascal Alscher, TU Dortmund University

• Elisabeth Graf, TU Dortmund University

• Nele McElvany, TU Dortmund University