Adolescent Civic Involvement and the Great Recession of 2008: Testing the Certainty of Employment

• In Event: 66.058 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 66.058-10 - Preparing Youth for College and Career

Abstract

This study employs data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 to test the certainty of
influence of voluntary civic involvement on high school students’ ability to gain employment
during The Great Recession of 2008. The study also examines whether volunteering with a
specific type of community organization (i.e., youth, educational, conservation/environmental,
school/community service, political club, church/church-related, community center/social action,
and hospital/nursing home) predicts future employment. Using SPSS, the authors conduct a
logistical regression, and the results are discussed using odds ratio. In addition to analyzing the
relationship between volunteering and specific volunteer organizations on future employment,
the authors include student sex, race/ethnicity, family composition, parents’ highest level of
education, and family income as demographic variables.

Authors

• Eric Suddeath, The University of Mississippi

• Laura Martin, The University of Mississippi - Oxford

• Deidra Jackson, The University of Mississippi

• Hsien-Yuan Hsu, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

• Phillis George, University of Mississippi