The Role of Individual and Contextual Factors in the Promotion of Adolescents' and Young Adults' Civic Engagement: Insights from Europe
Chair(s): Nicolò Maria Iannello (Department of Psychology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Education and Sport, Pegaso Telematic University, Naples, Italy)
Discussant(s): Dagmar Strohmeier (University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Linz, Austria; University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway)
Adolescence and emerging adulthood are two relevant phases of the lifecycle for the exploration of the mechanisms pushing individuals to civically engage. Indeed, adolescents and young adults undergo significant personal (e.g., changes in attitudes and beliefs) and social (e.g., enlarged social networks) transformations that might lead them to decide to contribute to the well-being of society. The current symposium seeks to elucidate such mechanisms by proposing three contributions which adopt different theoretical perspectives. The first study involved high school and university students from Argentina, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Two types of predictors of civic and political engagement were explored. The first one was drawn from Schwartz’ theory of basic human values; the second one focused on a subset of the attitudes and skills specified by the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. The second study was guided by a socioecological framework and investigated how personal resources (resilience, self-connection) and contextual factors (family quality, COVID-19–related anxiety) sustained Italian adolescents' and young adults’ civic engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring the mediating roles of civic attitudes and altruism. The last study adopted the Positive Youth Development perspective and investigated the unique and combined role of civic discussions with parents and youths' civic competences on the online and offline civic engagement of high school students from Southern Italy. This symposium provides insights into the underlying values, attitudes, and skills that prompt adolescents and young people across different European countries to engage civically and politically. Furthermore, it sheds light on the mechanisms that motivate adolescents and young adults to participate in civic activities and initiatives, even under the constraints of a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, it emphasizes that youth contributions to their communities become particularly effective when adolescents’ personal and contextual resources are aligned.
Presentations of the Symposium
What predicts Young People’s Civic and Political Engagement?
Harriet Tenenbaum1, Martyn Barrett1, Nikolina Tsvetkova2, Maria Stoicheva2, Kaloyan Haralampiev3, Antoaneta Getova3, Edyta Widawska4, Sabina Pawlik5, Saulė Milčiuvienė6, Irina Sikorska7, Melina Porto8
1School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, UK, 2European Studies Department, Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria, 3Sociology Department, Faculty of Philosophy, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria, 4Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, 5Institute of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, 6Department of Public Law, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, 7Department of Cultural Studies, Mariupol State University, Ukraine, 8Institute of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
We need to understand why some young people are civically and politically engaged. Young people’s civic and political engagement may be predicted from many factors. Our study focused on two types of predictors. The first set of predictors were drawn from Schwartz’s theory of basic human values (Schwartz, 2012). Schwartz suggests that values are general beliefs that an individual holds about the desirable goals that should be striven for in life (e.g., justice) that motivate a person’s behaviour. Values transcend specific actions and contexts and have a trans-situational applicability. Schwartz posits that values provide the motivational basis for attitudes and behaviour. Our second set of predictors focused on a subset of the attitudes and skills specified by the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC; Barrett et al., 2018).
Participants were 726 high school (238 male, 485 female, 3 non-binary) and 629 university students (119 male, 508 female, 4 non-binary) from Argentina, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
We conducted a regression model with 7 values from Schwartz, four attitudes from the RFCDC, and three skills from the RFCDC as the predictors, and with civic and political engagement as the dependent variable. The regression conducted across countries was statistically significant, F (1, 14) = 25.96, p < .001, Adj R2 = .22. Power-dominance, universalism-nature, openness, respect, civic mindedness, and self-efficacy were statistically significant predictors. Between-country differences will also be discussed.
We will explore how to increase young people’s civic and political engagement and how this may be achieved through education. This study is financed by the European Union-NextGenerationEU, through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Republic of Bulgaria, project No BG-RRP-2.004-0008
Self-Connection and Resilience as Drivers of Civic Engagement: Attitudinal, Altruistic, and Contextual Influences in Uncertain Times
Pasquale Musso1, Cristian Stifano1, Rosalinda Cassibba1, Diana Miconi2, Radosveta Dimitrova3
1Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy, 2University of Montreal, Canada, 3Stockholm University
Civic engagement is a key developmental asset in adolescence and emerging adulthood, shaped by personal resources, such as resilience, and relational factors, such as self-connection. However, the psychological mechanisms driving civic participation – particularly in periods of heightened social uncertainty – are not fully understood. This study examined how resilience and self-connection predict civic engagement by testing the mediating roles of civic attitudes and altruism and the moderating effects of family quality and Covid-19 anxiety. Data were collected from 674 Italian youth (Mage = 19.26; 60% female) between December 2020 and February 2021, during strict social restrictions. Although these data were gathered amid the Covid-19 pandemic, they offer broader insights into how personal and social resources may sustain collective participation under uncertain conditions. Two moderated mediation models were tested via structural equation modeling – one with family quality, one with Covid-19 anxiety as moderators – and both demonstrated excellent fit: χ²(10) = 8.827, p = .549, RMSEA = .000, CFI = 1.000, and χ²(9) = 9.091, p = .429, RMSEA = .005, CFI = 1.000, respectively. Civic attitudes and altruism emerged as significant mediators between resilience/self-connection and civic engagement, with self-connection exerting the stronger effect. Family quality did not moderate any path, indicating that these processes are robust across diverse family contexts. Covid-19 anxiety moderated only the direct link between self-connection and civic engagement. In the low-anxiety group, self-connection positively predicted civic engagement, whereas in the high-anxiety group, this effect was not significant, suggesting that elevated anxiety may impair the immediate transition from self-connection to civic action. Crucially, the indirect effects via civic attitudes and altruism remained significant regardless of anxiety level. These findings underscore the pivotal role of self-connection in fostering civic engagement and highlight the need to address anxiety when promoting youth participation in volatile sociopolitical contexts.
A Positive Youth Development Perspective on the Role of Individual and Familial Resources in Adolescents’ Civic Engagement and Well-Being
Nicolò Maria Iannello1, Costanza Baviera2, Nicla Cucinella3, Sonia Ingoglia3, Cristiano Inguglia3, Maria Grazia Lo Cricchio4, Alida Lo Coco3
1Department of Psychology and Health Sciences, Faculty of Human Sciences, Education and Sport, Pegaso Telematic University, Naples, Italy, 2Department of Research and Innovation in Humanities, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy, 3Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy, 4Department of Humanistic, Scientific and Social Innovation, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy
Transformations occurring during adolescence might hinder or foster youths’ well-being and attitudes pushing them to contribute to society. Based on the Positive Youth Development framework, positing that mutual relations between youth personal and ecological assets promote youths’ optimal growth, this study explored how adolescents’ civic competences (individual resources) and civic discussions with parents (ecological resources) uniquely and jointly affect youths’ well-being and civic engagement. A mediation structural equation model was applied to data collected from 321 high school students (75% girls) in Sicily (Southern Italy). Civic competences (CC) included empathy, cooperation, responsibility, civic mindedness, and respect. Well-being (WB) encompassed vitality, general health, and positive well-being (e.g., life satisfaction). Online and offline civic engagement (CE) was conceptualized in terms of individual/collective actions addressing societal issues. Civic discussions with parents (CD) were conceived as the extent to which children and parents share their views on questions concerning their communities. Results showed that CD were positively related to youths' CC and WB. Concurrently, respect was positively related to offline CE, responsibility was negatively associated with online CE, and civic mindedness was positively linked to online and offline CE. WB was not significantly related to any of the CC. Findings also evidenced that CD were negatively related to online CE through the mediating role of responsibility, and that civic mindedness positively mediated between CD and online and offline CE. This study underscored the unique contribution of CD on adolescents’ CC and WB and of some of the CC on youths' CE. This work also stressed the combined influence of CD and some of the CC on adolescents’ CE. Implications for interventions considering the role of parents in promoting adolescents’ CC and WB and the impact of CC on CE are discussed. This research was funded by “EU-PON Ricerca e Innovazione 2014–2020 DM 1062/2021”.
