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Developmental theory posits that youth are civically engaged in different ways, patterns of civic development vary across individuals, and both stability and change in youth civic engagement can be influenced by experiences in context. Drawing on these notions, we used a longitudinal person-oriented approach to document stability and change in civic engagement typologies across adolescence. Sociodemographic differences were tested to understand adolescents' civic developmental starting points in eighth grade, and civic discussions with parents and friends were examined as time-varying predictors of stability and change in civic engagement across eighth to 12th grades. Using national U.S. Longitudinal Study of American Youth data (N ϭ 3701), 5 annual assessments of civic engagement (civic values, political behaviors, and future civic expectations) served as latent transition analysis (LTA) indicators. A 4-class model was comprised of civic leaders, informed future voters, civic sympathizers, and unengaged youth. Civic engagement typologies in eighth grade varied systematically by gender, parent education, and race/ethnicity in ways that replicate and extend prior research. Civic discussions with parents and friends predicted stability in all 3 engaged typologies. Civic discussions with parents also predicted growth out of the unengaged group, whereas civic discussions with friends predicted remaining unengaged later in high school. Findings underscore patterns of civic inequality that are evident early in adolescence and illustrate the role of civic discussions in sustaining and increasing youth civic engagement.

Despite the potential importance of community service for the well-being of individuals and communities, relatively little is known about the developmental course of community service during the transition to adulthood (TTA). Our study tested competing hypotheses about change in community service across the TTA by estimating latent growth models from ages 18 to 26 in a nationally representative sample. We situated youth community service participation in historical context by testing for cohort differences in community service, and we examined differences in developmental trajectories by socioeconomic status, gender, grades, religiosity, race/ethnicity, college expectations, and college degree attainment. Using Monitoring the Future data from 1976 to 2011, we found that the best-fitting latent growth model for community service was quadratic: Community service declined from age 18 to 24 and leveled off thereafter. Cohort differences in intercepts indicated that age 18 community service increased over historical time; developmental declines in community service were consistent over the four decades. Parent education predicted higher community service at age 18, but did not predict growth parameters. Community service trajectories varied by gender, high school grades, religiosity, and educational attainment, although all groups declined. Overall, findings contribute to civic developmental theory by clarifying age and cohort effects in community service. Rising levels of community service at age 18 may reflect increased focused on service in high schools, yet these increases do not mitigate the decline across the TTA.

Recent advances in positive youth development theory and research explicate complex associations between adaptive functioning and risk behavior, acknowledging that high levels of both co-occur in the lives of some adolescents. However, evidence on nuanced overlapping developmental trajectories of adaptive functioning and risk has been limited to 1 sample of youth and a single conceptualization of adaptive functioning. We build on prior work by utilizing a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents (N = 1,665) followed from 7th grade until after high school and using a measure of adaptive functioning that was validated in a secondary sample of older adolescents (N = 93). In using dual trajectory growth mixture modeling to investigate links between developmental trajectories of adaptive functioning and delinquency and substance use, respectively, results provided evidence of heterogeneity in the overlap between adaptive functioning and risk trajectories. Males were more likely to be in the highest adaptive functioning group as well as the most at-risk delinquency class. The magnitude of negative associations between adaptive functioning and both risk behaviors decreased at Wave 3, indicating a decoupling of adaptive functioning and risk as youth aged. These findings converge in underscoring the need to generate a cohesive theory that specifies factors that promote adaptive functioning and risk in concert.