Examining the relationship between civic engagement and mental health in young adults: a systematic review of the literature

ABSTRACT

Researchers have examined civic engagement as a health promotion tool among older adults and adolescents, yet less is known about its mental health implications for young adults. This systematic review identified 53 articles on civic engagement and well-being in young adults. Five key themes emerged: (1) varying associations between type of civic engagement and well-being, (2) duration and frequency of civic behaviors, (3) directionality in the civic-to-well-being pathway, (4) mediation and moderation factors affecting the civic-to-well-being pathway, and (5) civic engagement as a tool for coping with adversity or systemic oppression. Civic engagement demonstrates a heterogeneous relationship to well-being; future research should focus on the explanatory pathways for positive, negative, and null correlations particularly among historically marginalized young adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic engagement
• mental health
• well-being
• systematic review
• young adults

Acknowledgements

Natalie Fenn: Conceptualization; Investigation; Data curation; Formal analysis; Methodology; Project administration; Supervision; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing. Allegra Sacco: Investigation; Data curation; Formal analysis; Methodology; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing. Kathleen Monahan: Investigation; Data curation; Formal analysis; Methodology; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing. Mark Robbins: Conceptualization; Methodology; Supervision; Writing – review & editing. Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz: Conceptualization; Methodology; Supervision; Writing – review & editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 PRISMA guidelines were followed except the study protocol was not registered.