Health Attitude, Mental Health Wellness 1, Social Interaction
Conditions
Keywords
civic engagement, health, social wellbeing, behavioral health
Brief summary
The purpose of this research is to understand how participating or not participating in an action civics curriculum may affect the health and wellbeing of young people. Participants will be chosen from students who attend certain schools that choose to participate in the action civics curriculum. Participation in this research involves completing surveys during class time in the Spring and Fall 2021-2022 semesters and then completing online surveys outside of class in the future.
Detailed description
Equal access to civic resources, such as opportunities for civic engagement and connections to one's community, are an important part of a culture of health. Meaningful experiences in civic engagement and community connectedness are transformative for young people - especially for youth from marginalized backgrounds, who often feel voiceless and excluded from decision-making in civic and social institutions. Theories and correlational evidence point to positive associations between civic engagement (e.g., volunteering, voting, and feelings of civic empowerment) and better mental, physical, and behavioral health and wellbeing. Meaningful civic engagement experiences may have an especially powerful effect on health and wellbeing for those from traditionally marginalized backgrounds. However, causal pathways between civic interventions, civic outcomes, and health and wellbeing outcomes among are not firmly established. Further, how civic engagement and sense of community affect health and wellbeing outcomes are unknown, and questions remain about for whom these effects may be especially beneficial. In this study, we ask whether an established civic intervention called Action Civics affects civic engagement and sense of community, and subsequently affects health and wellbeing among youth. To build on these observational findings, the study team will: (a) examine the causal links between youth civic engagement and sense of community and health, and (b) test whether an established school-based, civic engagement intervention can affect individual health and wellbeing and equity outcomes.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALParticipating in Action Civics program
Students in school classrooms participating in Action Civics program
Sponsors
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
10 Years to 20 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Currently enrolled Middle or High School student * Enrolled in a course with a teacher from a school participating in the study
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Youth Inventory of Involvement (activism, political engagement, and leadership items) | Baseline | Questionnaire measures civic engagement using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating more involvement in each domain |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Community Connection Scale | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline | Questionnaire measures sense of community using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher scores indicating higher sense of community. Based on from the California Healthy Kids Survey. |
| Questionnaire from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline | Questionnaire measures physical and mental health and wellbeing. Response options vary from 4-6 levels for the scales; higher numbers indicate better health. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORParissa J Ballard, PhD
Assistant Professor
Outcome results
None listed