title: Adolescents' domain-specific judgments about different forms of civic involvement: variations by age and gender.
abstract: Domain-specific judgments about different forms of civic engagement were assessed in a sample 467 primarily White adolescents (M age=15.26, range=11-19). Adolescents reported on the obligatory nature and social praiseworthiness (respect) of different forms of civic involvement. Adolescents distinguished among four different categories of civic involvement in their judgments: community service, standard political involvement (e.g., voting), social movement involvement (e.g., protesting), and community gathering activities. These mean differences were moderated by adolescent age (early, middle, and late adolescents) and gender. With increasing age, adolescents judged community service to be more worthy of respect but less obligatory. Compared to early adolescents, late adolescents prioritized standard political involvement as an activity in which US citizens should be engaged, but judged community gathering activities to be less obligatory. Across all age groups, girls judged community service and community gathering activities to be more obligatory than boys.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, 53 Campus Drive, PO Box 6040, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA. Aaron.Metzger@mail.wvu.edu
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Metzger
authors.forename: Kaitlyn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ferris
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011057:Politics; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult