Community service and political identity development in adolescence

Journal of Social Issues, Fall, 1998 by Miranda Yates, James Youniss

Retrospective studies indicate that activist experiences in youth can serve as landmark events or turning points that help define a sense of social responsibility and investment. Two pertinent studies were conducted on participants in the U.S. civil rights movement. This research also helps to illuminate the role of historical and generational context in identity formation. Although it should be noted that this kind of research may potentially be affected by self-selection bias, the investigators in these two studies strengthened their findings by comparing participants with nonparticipants matched on key demographic characteristics and experiences.

In one study, McAdam (1988) surveyed and interviewed applicants to Freedom Summer. He compared participants who spent the summer of 1964 in Mississippi engaging in service activities such as teaching in schools, building houses, and helping people register to vote with applicants who, for various reasons, could not participate. He found that participants were more active politically 25 years later than no-shows. They expressed ongoing commitment to such causes as peace, women's rights, the environment, and local politics. The interviews, in particular, shed light on the formation of this commitment. Participants, who were college students in the 1960s, described the centrality of the experience in shaping their sense of identity. They came to perceive themselves as having agency to alter the course of history. They began to view themselves as being committed to improve social conditions for everyone. And they eventually saw themselves and their generation as helping shape the political and moral directions of the nation.

In a second study, Fendrich (1993) reported on Black and White alumni of Florida A & M University who participated in public protests against racial segregation from the mid-1950s to 1963. Data were gathered from student activists and from a comparison group of nonprotesters who participated in student government. Surveying alumni 10 and 25 years later, he found differences between protesters and nonprotesters, Black and White students, and alumni from the two year groups as delineated below.

Both 10 and 25 years later, White protesters differed from White nonprotesters. For instance, protesters had sought more advanced degrees and were more likely to be employed in the education and helping professions. Whereas alumni in both groups voted at a high rate of 97-100%, college protesters were more likely to have participated in a protest march and to have attended a protest meeting in the years after college.

Results for the Black cohort differed 10 and 25 years later. Ten years after college, Black protesters had become ideal democratic citizens. Compared with nonprotesters, activists sought more advanced degrees, had higher incomes, and belonged to more civic organizations. The two groups did not differ in political attitudes and behavior. Both groups were politically active; for instance, within the prior two years, 97% had voted, 60% had taken part in political campaigns, and 40% had voted in a public demonstration.