This article introduces civic purpose as a construct for learning about civic development in adolescence. Civic purpose, defined as a sustained intention to contribute to the world beyond the self through civic or political action, integrates the components of motivation, civic activity, and future-oriented civic intention. We present results from a mixed methods longitudinal study that used the civic purpose framework in which 1,578 high school seniors took a survey, 50 participated in an interview, and 9 additional adolescent “civic exemplars” participated in both the survey and the interview. Two years later, 480 participants took the survey again, and 34 participated in a second interview. A small percentage of the study subjects exhibited full civic purpose across three different types of civic activity (political, community service, expressive), while a larger percentage demonstrated precursory forms of civic purpose, with evidence of some but not all components of civic purpose. Key contributors to the development of civic purpose were: identity salience, beliefs and values, and invitation from one or more adults.

Keywords:
Adolescence, Civic development, Purpose, Youth civic engagement
1.
Adler, R.P., & Goggin, J. (2005). What do we mean by “civic engagement”? Journal of Transformative Education, 3, 236-253.
2.
Andolina, M.W., Jenkins, K., Zukin, C., & Keeter, S. (2003). Habits from home, lessons from school: Influences on youth civic engagement. PS: Political Science and Politics, 36, 275-280.
3.
Atkins, R., & Hart, D. (2003). Neighborhoods, adults, and the development of civic identity in urban youth. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 156-164.
4.
Ballard, P.J. (2014). What motivates youth civic involvement? Journal of Adolescent Research, 29, 439-463.
5.
Ballard, P.J., & Damon, W. (2014, March). Testing the direction of links between experiencing discrimination and civic attitudes and behaviors among diverse adolescents. In P.J. Ballard (Chair), Complex links between experiencing discrimination and developing ideas about society among diverse youth. Symposium conducted at the Society for Research on Adolescence meeting, Austin, TX.
6.
Ballard, P.J., Malin, H., Porter, T., Colby, A., & Damon, W. (2015). Motivations for civic participation among diverse youth: More similarities than differences. Research in Human Development, 12, 63-83.
7.
Bellah, R.N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W.M., Swidler, A., & Tipton, S.M. (1985). Habits of the heart: Individualism and commitment in American life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
8.
Benson, P.L., & Scales, P.C. (2009). The definition and preliminary measurement of thriving in adolescence. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 85-104.
9.
Colby, A., & Damon, W. (1992). Some do care: Contemporary lives of moral commitment. New York, NY: Free Press.
10.
Colby, A., Kohlberg, L., Gibbs, J., & Lieberman, M. (1983). A longitudinal study of moral judgment. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 48, 1-124.
11.
Dagger, R. (1997). Civic virtues: Rights, citizenship, and republican liberalism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
12.
Damon, W. (1988). Moral child: Nurturing children's natural moral growth. New York, NY: Free Press.
13.
Damon, W. (1999). Reading between the lines: What do teenagers laws of life essays tell us about them? In P. Veljkovic (Ed.), Laws of life (1999-2000, Winter, p. 2). Radnor, PA: John Templeton Foundation.
14.
Damon, W. (2008). The path to purpose: How young people find their calling in life. New York, NY: Free Press.
15.
Damon, W., Menon, J.L., & Bronk, K.C. (2003). The development of purpose during adolescence. Journal of Applied Developmental Science, 7, 119-128.
16.
DeVogler, K.L., & Ebersole, P. (1983). Young adolescents' meaning in life. Psychological Reports, 52, 427-431.
17.
Durkheim, E. (1961). Moral education: A study in the theory and application of the sociology of education (E. Wilson & H. Schnurer, Transl.). New York, NY: Free Press. (Original work published 1925.)
18.
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Guthrie, I.K., Murthy, B.C., & Shepard, S.A. (2005). Age changes in prosocial responding and moral reasoning in adolescence and early adulthood. Journal of Research on Adolescence, Special Issue: Moral Development, 15, 235-260.
19.
Ekman, J., & Amnå, E. (2012). Political participation and civic engagement: Towards a new typology. Human Affairs, 22, 283-300.
20.
Erikson, E.H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York, NY: Norton.
21.
Flanagan, C.A., Cumsille, P., Gill, S., & Gallay, L.S. (2007). School and community climates and civic commitments: Patterns for ethnic minority and majority students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 421-431.
22.
Flanagan, C., & Faison, N. (2001). Youth civic development: Implications of research for social policy and programs. Social Policy Report, 15, 3-15.
23.
Frankl, V.E. (1959). Man's search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy. Boston, MA: Beacon.
24.
Gardner, H., Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Damon, W. (2001) Good work: When excellence and ethics meet. New York, NY: Basic Books.
25.
Hardy, S.A., & Carlo, G. (2005). Identity as a source of moral motivation. Human Development, 48, 232-256.
26.
Hart, D., Donnelly, T.M., Youniss, J., & Atkins, R. (2007). High school community service as a predictor of adult voting and volunteering. American Educational Research Journal, 44, 197-219.
27.
Haste, H., & Hogan, A. (2006). Beyond conventional civic participation, beyond the moral-political divide: Young people and contemporary debates about citizenship. Journal of Moral Education, 35, 473-493.
28.
Henderson, A., Brown, S.D., Pancer, S.M., & Ellis-Hale, K. (2007). Mandated community service in high school and subsequent civic engagement: The case of the “double cohort” in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36, 849-860.
29.
Hoffman, M.L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
30.
Jennings, M.K., Stoker, L., & Bowers, J. (2009). Politics across the generations: Family transmission reexamined. Journal of Politics, 71, 782-799.
31.
Keeter, S., Zukin, C., Andolina, M., & Jenkins, K. (2002). The civic and political health of the nation: A generational portrait. Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). Retrieved from http://pollcats.net/downloads/civichealth.pdf.
32.
Keyes, C.L.M. (2007). Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing. American Psychologist, 62, 95-108.
33.
Kirby, E.H., Kawashima-Ginsberg, K., & Godsay, S. (2011). CIRCLE Fact Sheet: Youth volunteering in the states: 2002 to 2009. Medford, MA: The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
34.
Lerner, R. (2004). Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America's youth. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
35.
Lerner, R., Brentano, C., Dowling, E.M., & Anderson, P.M. (2002). Positive youth development: Thriving as the basis of personhood and civil society. New Directions for Youth Development, 95, 11-33.
36.
Lerner, J.V., Phelps, E., Forman, Y.E., & Bowers, E. (2009). Positive youth development. In R.M. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology: Individual bases of adolescent development. Vol. 1 (3rd ed., pp. 524-558). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
37.
Levinson, M. (2010). The civic empowerment gap: Defining the problem and locating solutions. In L.R. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, & C.A. Flanagan (Eds.), Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth (pp. 331-361). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
38.
Liu, E., & Hanauer, N. (2007). The true patriot. Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books.
39.
Malin, H. (2015). Arts participation as a context for youth purpose. Studies in Art Education, 56, 268-280.
40.
Malin, H., Ballard, P.J., Attai, M.L., Colby, A., & Damon, W. (2014a). Youth civic development and education: A conference consensus report. Stanford, CA: Center on Adolescence, and Seattle, WA: Center for Multicultural Education, University of Washington.
41.
Malin, H., Reilly, T.S., Quinn, B., & Moran, S. (2014b). Adolescent purpose development: Exploring empathy, discovering roles, shifting priorities, and creating pathways. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24, 186-199.
42.
Malin, H., Tirri, K., & Liauw, I. (2015). Adolescent moral motivations for civic engagement: Clues to the political gender gap? Journal of Moral Education, 44, 34-50.
43.
Massey, E.K., Gebhardt, W.A., & Garnefski, N. (2008). Adolescent goal content and pursuit: A review of the literature from the past 16 years. Developmental Review, 28, 421-460.
44.
McIntosh, H., & Youniss, J. (2010). Toward a political theory of political socialization of youth. In L.R. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, & C.A. Flanagan (Eds.), Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth (pp. 23-42). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
45.
Metz, E., McLellan, J., & Youniss, J. (2003). Types of voluntary service and adolescents civic development. Journal of Adolescent Research, 18, 188-203.
46.
Metzger, A., & Ferris, K. (2013). Adolescents' domain-specific judgments about different forms of civic involvement: Variations by age and gender. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 529-538.
47.
Metzger, A., & Smetana, J.G. (2009). Adolescent civic and political engagement: Associations between domain-specific judgments and behavior. Child Development, 80, 433-441.
48.
Moran, S. (2009). Purpose: Giftedness in intrapersonal intelligence. High Ability Studies, 20, 143-159.
49.
Moran, S., Bundick, M., Malin, H., & Reilly, T.S. (2013). How supportive of their specific purposes do youth believe their family and friends are? Journal of Adolescent Research, 28, 348-377.
50.
Nucci, L. (2001). Education in the moral domain. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
51.
Nucci, L., & Turiel, E. (2009). Capturing the complexity of moral development and education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3, 151-159.
52.
Nurmi, J.E. (1991). How do adolescents see their future? A review of the development of future orientation and planning. Developmental Review, 11, 1-59.
53.
Obradović, J., & Masten, A.S. (2007). Developmental antecedents of young adult civic engagement. Applied Developmental Science, 11, 2-19.
54.
Ogilvie, D.M., Rose, K.M., & Heppen, J.B. (2001). A comparison of personal project motives in three age groups. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23, 207-215.
55.
Pancer, S.M., Pratt, M., Hunsberger, B., & Alisat, S. (2007). Community and political involvement in adolescence: What distinguishes the activists from the uninvolved? Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 741-759.
56.
Pratt, M.W., Hunsberger, B., Pancer, S.M., & Alisat, S. (2003). A longitudinal analysis of personal values socialization: Correlates of a moral self-ideal in late adolescence. Social Development, 12, 563-585.
57.
Rodriguez, L., Schwartz, S.J., & Whitbourne, S.K. (2010). American identity revisited: The relation between national, ethnic, and personal identity in a multiethnic sample of emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 25, 324-349.
58.
Rubin, B. (2007). “There's still not justice”: Youth civic identity development amid distinct school and community contexts. Teachers College Record, 109, 449-481.
59.
Sanchez-Jankowski, M. (2002). Minority youth and civic engagement: The impact of group relations. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 237-245.
60.
Schmidt, J.A, Shumow, L., & Kackar, H. (2007). Adolescents' participation in service activities and its impact on academic, behavioral, and civic outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36, 127-140.
61.
Sherrod, L., Flanagan, C., & Youniss, J. (2002). Dimensions of citizenship and opportunities for youth development: The what, why, when, where, and who of citizenship development. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 264-272.
62.
Sherrod, L.R., & Lauckhardt, J. (2009). The development of citizenship. In R.M. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology. Vol. 2 (3rd ed., pp. 372-408). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
63.
Spencer, M.B. (2011). American identity: Impact of youth's differential experiences in society on their attachment to American ideals. Applied Developmental Science, 15, 61-69.
64.
Stepick, A., Stepick, C.D., & Labissiere, Y. (2008). South Florida's immigrant youth and civic engagement: Major engagement: Minor differences. Applied Development Science, 12, 57-65.
65.
Walker, T. (2002). Service as a pathway to political participation: What research tells us. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 183-188.
66.
Wray-Lake, L., & Syvertsen, A.K. (2011). The developmental roots of social responsibility in childhood and adolescence. In C.A. Flanagan & B.D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 11-25.
67.
Wray-Lake, L., Syvertsen, A.K., & Flanagan, C.A. (2008). Contested citizenship and social exclusion: Adolescent Arab-American immigrants' views of the social contract. Applied Developmental Science, 12, 84-92.
68.
Youniss, J. (2011). Civic education: What schools can do to encourage civic identity and action. Applied Developmental Science, 15, 98-103.
69.
Youniss, J., McLellan, J.A., & Yates, M. (1997). What we know about engendering civic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40, 620-631.
70.
Zaff, J., Boyd, M., Li, Y., Lerner, J.V., & Lerner, R.M. (2010). Active and engaged citizenship: multi-group and longitudinal factorial analysis of an integrated construct of civic engagement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 736-750.
© 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel
2015
Copyright / Drug Dosage / Disclaimer
Copyright: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Drug Dosage: The authors and the publisher have exerted every effort to ensure that drug selection and dosage set forth in this text are in accord with current recommendations and practice at the time of publication. However, in view of ongoing research, changes in government regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert for each drug for any changes in indications and dosage and for added warnings and precautions. This is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently employed drug.
Disclaimer: The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publishers and the editor(s). The appearance of advertisements or/and product references in the publication is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality or safety. The publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements.
You do not currently have access to this content.