Connection Between Adolescent's Exposure to Community Violence and Future Civic Engagement Behaviors

Purpose: Substantial empirical evidence has demonstrated that exposure to violence in a community setting is a major risk factor for the healthy development of adolescent. While a number of recent theories suggest that high civic participation, and social capital could protect our community from deviant behaviors or crime (Allen, Kuperminc, Philliber, & Herre, 1994; Vieno, Nation, Perkins, & Santinello, 2007), few studies investigate how the role of the community might play in attaining these assets for adolescents in the United States (Scales, Benson, & Mannes, 2006; Whitlock, 2007). In addition, no empirical study has addressed how exposure to community violence during adolescence might affect an individual's involvement with volunteering and other civic activities during their young adulthood. The current study aims to bridge these gaps in the literature by investigating the potential association between exposure to violence in community and adolescent's subsequent involvement with volunteer activities during young adulthood while controlling for the effects of age, gender and race.

Methods: This study utilized the public data from Wave 1 (1995), Wave 2 (1996), and Wave 3 (2001-2002) of the in-home interviews from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The sample (n = 3,388) was representative of the young adult population aged 18-26 years in the US. The mean age of study participant at Wave 3 was 21. Interviews and standardized measures were used to obtain information about race, gender, age, their history of victimization in the community during adolescence, and participation in volunteer activities during young adulthood. Weighted logistic regression model was adopted to correct for sampling design effects and estimate the influence of victimization in community (Wave 1 and 2) on the outcomes of civic engagement in young adulthood (Wave 3).

Results: Supporting earlier findings, minority youths were significantly at higher risks of exposure to violence in the community (χ²= 94.72, df=4, p < .0000001). Over 35.7% of African American, 35.3% of Hispanic and 31.1% of mixed race minority adolescents as compared to 20% of their White counterpart had been victimized at least once during the survey period. The Hosmer and Lemeshow chi-square test revealed that the logistic model adequately fits the data (χ²= 7.14, df= 8, p=.52). The odds of being involved in volunteer activities during young adulthood were decreased by a factor of .90 (p< 0.000001) if the individual were exposed to violence during adolescence. Older age significantly decreased the odds of volunteering (odds ratio =.89, p < 0.000001). Compared to individuals from mixed racial background, White (odd ratio = 1.66, p <.01), African Americans (odd ratio = 1.63, p <.05) and Asian Americans (odd ratio = 1.75, p <.05), were more likely to engage in volunteer activities. The odds of participating in community services were not significantly different across gender. Implications: Results from this study revealed that community life experience could potentially cultivate individual pro-social and civic behaviors, while interventions intended for reducing youth victimization besides promoting personal safety could possibly enrich future social capital in the community.