Explicating Factors That Foster Civic Engagement among Students

The long‐term effects of youth mentoring on student mentors' civic engagement attitudes and behavior

“…Quantitative and qualitative studies support this claim and have shown that student involvement in civic engagement activities during their school years is associated with increased self-competence, leadership and interpersonal skills, the choice of a service career, commitment to activism after college Astin & Sax, 1998;Astin, Vogelgesang, Ikeda, & Yee, 2000), the development of a pluralistic attitude and a decline in prejudice (Golan & Shalhoub-Kevorkian, 2014), greater commitment to future civic (Austin et al, 2000;Nishishiba, Nelson, & Shinn, 2005;Sax, 2000), and/or political (Beaumont, Colby, Ehrlich, & Torney-Purta, 2006) involvement.…”

Development Through Dissent: Campus Activism as Civic Learning

“…This valuing of campus expression not only promotes civic learning among participants (supported by findings in this study), but also may lead to more civic‐mindedness among peers. In a single‐campus study of 435 students, Nishishiba, Nelson, and Shinn () found community efficacy to be among the strongest predictors for direct action, or the extent to which a student would participate in a protest or boycott for an issue of concern. Community efficacy was a construct variable partially defined as perception about community as a change agent and belief in a capacity for coming together.…”

Close and Connected: The Effects of Proximity and Social Ties on Citizen Opposition to Electricity Transmission Lines

“…Political efficacy ranges from 1 to 4 with a higher value indicating a greater sense of personal political efficacy. Based on Nishishba et al (2005), we expect those with a stronger sense of efficacy to be more involved in opposing the project, and thus, we expect a positive sign for this variable.…”

“…Political efficacy measures an individual’s perception of their political efficacy and was based on responses to the following question: “How much of an impact do you think your comments would have in influencing the location of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project?” Political efficacy ranges from 1 to 4 with a higher value indicating a greater sense of personal political efficacy. Based on Nishishba et al (2005), we expect those with a stronger sense of efficacy to be more involved in opposing the project, and thus, we expect a positive sign for this variable.…”

“…Individuals’ sense of their own political efficacy has also been shown to be an important predictor of citizen opposition behavior vis-à-vis energy projects (Devine-Wright, 2009). This is because people who believe they will have an impact on political outcomes are more likely to engage in lobbying or other actions to influence the process (Nishishba, Nelson, & Shinn, 2005). Citizens tend to engage in participatory actions when they expect the benefits from their participation to exceed the costs (Stürmer & Simon, 2004).…”