TY - JOUR

T1 - Offline and Online Civic Engagement Among Adolescents and Young Adults from Three Ethnic Groups

AU - Jugert, Philipp

AU - Eckstein, Katharina

AU - Noack, Peter

AU - Kuhn, Alexandra

AU - Benbow, Alison

N1 - Funding Information: The analyses are based on data from the PIDOP project (http:// www.fahs.surrey.ac.uk/pidop/), a multinational research project funded by the EU under the 7th Framework Programme. Funding Information: Acknowledgments The empirical research upon which this paper is based was supported by a grant received from the European Commission 7th Framework Programme, FP7-SSH-2007-1, Grant Agreement no: 225282, Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation (PIDOP) awarded to the University of Surrey (UK), University of Liège (Belgium), Masaryk University (Czech Republic), University of Jena (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy), University of Porto (Portugal), Örebro University (Sweden), Ankara University (Turkey) and Queen’s University Belfast (UK).

PY - 2013/1

Y1 - 2013/1

N2 - Levels of civic engagement are assumed to vary according to numerous social and psychological characteristics, but not much is known about online civic engagement. This study aimed to investigate differences and similarities in young people's offline and online civic engagement and to clarify, based on Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (TPB), associations between motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, collective efficacy, and civic engagement. The sample consisted of 755 youth (native German, ethnic German Diaspora, and Turkish migrants) from two age groups (16-18 and 19-26; mean age 20.5 years; 52 % female). Results showed that ethnic group membership and age moderated the frequency of engagement behavior, with Turkish migrants taking part more than native Germans, who were followed by ethnic German Diaspora migrants. Analyses based on TPB showed good fit for a model relating intention for offline and online civic engagement to motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, and collective efficacy. Ethnic group moderated the findings for offline civic engagement and questioned the universality of some model parameters (e. g., peer and parental norms). This study showed the utility of the TPB framework for studying civic engagement but also reveals that the predictive utility of peer and parental norms seems to vary depending on the group and the behavior under study. This study highlights the importance of including minority samples in the study of civic engagement in order to identify between-group similarities and differences.

AB - Levels of civic engagement are assumed to vary according to numerous social and psychological characteristics, but not much is known about online civic engagement. This study aimed to investigate differences and similarities in young people's offline and online civic engagement and to clarify, based on Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (TPB), associations between motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, collective efficacy, and civic engagement. The sample consisted of 755 youth (native German, ethnic German Diaspora, and Turkish migrants) from two age groups (16-18 and 19-26; mean age 20.5 years; 52 % female). Results showed that ethnic group membership and age moderated the frequency of engagement behavior, with Turkish migrants taking part more than native Germans, who were followed by ethnic German Diaspora migrants. Analyses based on TPB showed good fit for a model relating intention for offline and online civic engagement to motivation for civic engagement, peer and parental norms, and collective efficacy. Ethnic group moderated the findings for offline civic engagement and questioned the universality of some model parameters (e. g., peer and parental norms). This study showed the utility of the TPB framework for studying civic engagement but also reveals that the predictive utility of peer and parental norms seems to vary depending on the group and the behavior under study. This study highlights the importance of including minority samples in the study of civic engagement in order to identify between-group similarities and differences.

KW - Adolescents

KW - Civic engagement

KW - Migrants

KW - Online behavior

KW - Young adults

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84871455291&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10964-012-9805-4

DO - 10.1007/s10964-012-9805-4

M3 - Article

C2 - 22903193

AN - SCOPUS:84871455291

VL - 42

SP - 123

EP - 135

JO - Journal of Youth and Adolescence

JF - Journal of Youth and Adolescence

SN - 0047-2891

IS - 1

ER -