Adolescents’ Civic Commitments in Stable and Fledgling Democracies: The Role of Family, School, and Community

Abstract

The authors examined the associations between adolescents’ perceptions of proximal processes in families, schools, and communities and their civic commitments (to the local community, nation, and conventional politics) in stable (Australia, United States) and fledgling (Bulgaria, Hungary) democracies in the mid-1990s. Results of multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed that adolescents in the stable democracies reported higher levels of extracurricular participation, family emphasis on social responsibility, and community social capital compared to peers in the fledgling democracies. Using a multiple group regression approach, the authors found that in both types of polities, community social capital was positively associated with all three civic outcomes and a family ethic of social responsibility was positively associated with commitments to the local community and nation. However, whereas in the stable democracies, a democratic school climate was positively associated with commitments to the community and nation, in the fledgling democracies such school climates were positively associated with commitments to conventional politics.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Luba Botcheva, Jennifer Bowes, and Beno Csapo for collecting data for this study. Support for data collection from the Jacobs Foundation and the W. T. Grant Foundation to Constance A. Flanagan is gratefully acknowledged.