Trajectories of civic socialization in context: Examining variation among children in African American and Black immigrant families.

Abstract

Little is known about how developmental experiences spanning early childhood through adolescence prepare children and youth to engage with society, and even less so for ethnically diverse Black children and youth. Building from work linking positive youth development (PYD) to civic engagement, this study examined how socialization trajectories from early childhood through adolescence in concert with early childhood experiences and contexts related to adolescent civic development. Person-centered analysis (PCA) through trajectory modeling was conducted using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K). Family-level inclusion criteria was used to identify the subsample wherein at least 1 parent identified as Black or African American (N = 3,562); 49.5% of children were female. The ECLS-K component measure of socioeconomic status (SES) indicated that most families were from low SES backgrounds (54.5%), followed by middle and upper-middle class (36.4%,), then upper-middle class and beyond (9.1%). Civic development was measured by the PYD outcomes of competence, confidence, connection to school and peers, caring, and character, which have positively accounted for civic engagement across ethnically and racially diverse youth. Findings suggest that diversity in socialization experiences, sociocultural background, and context result in differential outcomes of civic development. This builds on previous civic engagement work by affirming the importance of parental perceptions, civic opportunity, socialization practices, and context. Moreover, this work highlights ethnic diversity among Black youth in civic development and suggests that being from an immigrant family is associated with differential civic outcomes relative to their nonimmigrant counterparts.

Incorporating immigrant optimism into critical consciousness and civic development models: An integrative review and synthesis of civic action among immigrant youth of color in the United States.

“…For example, civic knowledge and discussions with parents and peers around political issues have been directly and indirectly linked to internal SPE and action (Diemer & Li, 2011). In immigrant families, the nature of conversations about civic life and social issues, such as racism, may differ based on youths’ and parents’ unique understanding of sociopolitical institutions, race, racism, and xenophobia, as informed by their different generational statutes or contexts of reception (Cross et al, 2020; Karras-Jean Gilles et al, 2020). Future research should examine the kind of messages immigrant youth of color receive from others, particularly their immigrant parents, regarding the fairness and opportunities that the United States offers to people like them, as well as the challenges associated with the inequities they might experience.…”

Looking within: Elevating Black scholarly contributions to empirical approaches in developmental science.

“…Civic engagement and the related processes of sociopolitical development (SPD) have been characterized as adaptive coping responses to the lived experience of inequality (Hope & Spencer, 2017). SPD is an increasingly relevant area to unpack through psychological investigations given the salience of sociopolitical global shifts in shaping human behavior and meaning-making (e.g., Karras-Jean Gilles et al, 2020; Seaton et al, 2017). While civic engagement scholarship focuses on knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors connected with participation in civil society (e.g., community service, voting), SPD positions a critical understanding of social inequality as one of its primary components (Watts & Flanagan, 2007).…”

Using QuantCrit to Advance an Anti-Racist Developmental Science: Applications to Mixture Modeling

“…For example, latent profile analyses (McLachlan & Peel, 2000) are used to identify participants who are similar in their pattern of responses to a set of continuous items (e.g., frequencies of participation in different civic activities; Johnson et al, 2014). Growth mixture modeling (Ram & Grimm, 2009) is used to identify individuals who have similar types and rates of change (e.g., patterns of civic socialization across adolescence; Karras-Jean Gilles et al, 2020). Other mixture techniques used by developmental scientists include latent transition analyses (Nylund, 2007; Vermunt & Magidson, 2002) and regression mixture analyses (Van Horn et al, 2015; Wedel & DeSarbo, 1994).…”