The Role of Adolescent Extracurricular Activities in Adult Political Participation. CIRCLE Working Paper 02

This literature review is specifically interested in empirical research addressing the relationship between adolescent participation in extracurricular activities and adult political engagement. Relevant research is found in political science, psychology, education and sociology. In order to capture the literature most directly related to the main question the authors screened known research, searched bibliographic references, reviewed databases including major social science fields and searched for the work of authors with a history of working on this question. Relevant journals were also reviewed manually. General findings are as follows: (1) There is a strong correlation between adolescent extracurricular participation and adult political and civic behaviors; (2) When controlling for type of organization, adolescent participation in instrumental organizations is correlated with later political and civic participation while adolescent participation in expressive organizations is not; (3) Although most adolescent members of extracurricular groups come from higher socioeconomic status (SES) families, extracurricular participants who do not come from high SES families have similar adult political and civic engagement patterns; and (4) Research utilizing path analysis and/or longitudinal panel data is proving to be the most powerful for explaining the complex set of forces that shape politically active adults. (Contains 1 table.) [This working paper was produced by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).]