Connecting the Dots: Exploring Which Factors Increase Community Involvement Among Minority Youth

Background/Purpose: The benefits of community involvement among youth through activities like community service, service-learning, and civic engagement have been discussed extensively in the literature. Researchers have also discussed the importance of increasing community involvement among youth in a time when civic participation appears to be waning. However, it is unclear what specifically motivates community involvement among minority youth, even though a number of factors have been associated with the construct.

The purpose of this study was to explore factors that are potentially associated with increased community involvement among minority youth, particularly when factors known to be associated with community involvement are observed simultaneously. It was hypothesized that self-efficacy, civic attitudes, respect for diversity, and communication competence would each have some influence on community involvement among minority youth.

Methods: Sample: Seventy-eight youth participated in this study. All participants were students of color who attended one of two high schools in New York City, identifying as Asian, Black, mixed, or other. Approximately forty-two percent of the sample were females (n = 33). All participants were between the ages of 16 and 18.

Measures: The independent variables for this study were self-efficacy, civic attitudes, respect for diversity, and communication competence (α = .91). Self-efficacy was measured using the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) (α = .89). Civic attitudes were measured using the civic attitudes scale developed by Sabatelli, Anderson, and LeMotte (2005) (α = .70). Sabatelli et al. (2005) also developed the Ethnic Identity Scale, which was used to measure respect for diversity (α = .85). Spitzberg and Cuprach’s Interpersonal Communication Competence Self-Assessment was used to assess communication competence among participants (α = .91). The dependent variable, community involvement, was the observed using a 6-item subscale (α = .76) taken from the Youth Asset Survey (Oman et al., 2002).

Data Analyses: The data was analyzed using bivariate correlations with the dependent variable, followed by multiple regression analysis.

Results: Three of the four correlates of community involvement identified in the literature were found to be positive, statistically significant, and moderately strong (i.e., r > .30, p < .01). The fourth correlate, interpersonal communication competence, was positive, albeit “modest”, and only marginally statistically significant (r = .24, p < .06).

However, multiple regression analysis showed that, of the four independent variables observed, only self-efficacy (β = .30, p < .04) and civic attitudes (β = .42, p < .01) were positively, significantly, and moderately strongly related to community involvement.

Conclusions and Implications: The results of this study only partially support the hypothesis in that only self-efficacy and civic attitudes were significantly related to community involvement. These findings suggest that even though multiple variables have been shown to impact community involvement in some way, taken together, some variables are more influential than others. This has implications for anyone seeking to develop methods of increasing community involvement among youth. More specifically, the most appropriate approach to preparing youth for community involvement is made clearer as a result of knowing which influential attributes to develop.