African American Males' Civic Engagement: The Importance of Social Organization Involvement and Friendship Diversity.

Using an ecological framework this study examines the relationships of micro- (personal characteristics and community commitment), mezzo-(trust and social network) and macro-level factors (social organization involvement and faith-based capital) and civic engagement, in a sample of African Americans males. Two research questions were examined: When micro-level factors are controlled for are macro- and mezzo- level factors predictive of civic engagement (i.e., civic activity behavior and charitable behavior)? What is the relative contribution of faith-based social capital and social organization involvement to civic engagement? African American male participants in the 2000 Social Capital Benchmark Survey provided the data for this study (Saguaro Seminar, 2001). Hierarchical Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression was used to address the study's research questions. The findings highlight the importance of social organization involvement and the diversity of African American men's individual's social networks as predictors of their civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]