Maintaining civil society and democracy: Examining the role of youth development organizations in promoting civic identity development

A comprehensive review of literature from diverse fields including political science, psychology, education, and sociology identified four factors related to a person's civic identity, and thus his or her likely future impact on civil society and democracy: social capital/social trust, pro-civic attitudes, civic knowledge and skills, and civic engagement. Using data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, this paper used confirmatory factor analysis to test this four-factor model of civic identity development among a national sample of 8th grade students. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to further refine the model into eight indicators and an overall civic identity measure. Participation in 4-H and other youth development organizations was used to predict scores on the resulting indicators. The prediction model was significant for seven of the eight factors of civic identity and for civic identity overall, meaning that young people who participated in these organizations had higher scores than young people who did not participate in these organizations. In addition, participation in 4-H had an impact on six of the seven factors of civic identity and for civic identity overall. That is, participation in 4-H was related to higher scores on six of the seven factors of civic identity, as well as for civic identity overall, as compared to young people who did not participate in 4-H.;For five of the six factors for which 4-H had an impact and for civic identity overall, participation in 4-H had a greater impact in predicting the outcome variable than did participation in other youth development organizations. In addition, in order to assess whether civic identity development is similar across all young people, the impact of gender, race, and socioeconomic status on the factors of civic identity development was also tested. Results indicated that gender significantly predicted the outcome variable for all of the civic identity factors and for civic identity overall, while race was a significant predictor for five of the civic identity factors and for civic identity overall. Socioeconomic status did not significantly predict any of the outcome variables, nor did the interaction between gender and 4-H. In addition, neither the length of time that a young person participated in 4-H nor the intensity with which they were participating significantly predicted the outcomes for any of the eight civic identity factors or for civic identity overall. Limitations of the study include the non-representative nature of the sample, the limited number of items available for measuring civic identity, and the inability to distinguish between different 4-H delivery modes. Nevertheless, the results of the study offer insights into the measurement of civic identity among young people and the impact that 4-H is having on civic identity, particularly for young people in the club model. Future research should involve longitudinal assessments of civic identity development and activity participation, as well as assessments at local program levels that would account for diversity among different local instantiations of national youth development programs.