Youth Civic Development E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: J-B MHS Single Issue Mental Health Services
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 227

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Take a cutting edge look at the civic engagement of young people. Increasingly recognized as an important feature of democratic functioning in communities, it has also become clear that the civic domain is indispensable as a context for understanding human development processes. This volume proposes the following central theses in relation to youth civic development: * It is rooted in the realities of young people's everyday lives. * It is collectively constructed. * It raises questions about the principles, values, and relationships that bind people together in societies. * It raises questions about power and justice. Youth civic development pushes the field to focus on the social issues with which younger generations are grappling and the identities they are constructing--issues that also are shaped by structural inequalities and by the collective actions of youth. The volume builds on themes of agency and assets from the field of positive youth development and points to ways that the critical analysis and engagement of young people in their society can contribute to social change. This is the 134th volume in this series. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in child and adolescent development. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts on that topic.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Chapter 1: Youth Civic Development: Historical Context and Emerging Issues

An Evolving Field

Organization of the Volume

Conclusion

Chapter 2: The Developmental Roots of Social Responsibility in Childhood and Adolescence

Defining Social Responsibility

Development in Childhood and Adolescence

Seedbeds of Social Responsibility: Families, Peers, Schools, and Communities

Conclusions and Future Directions

Chapter 3: Taking Stock of Youth Organizing: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Case Examples of Influential Youth Organizing Initiatives

Common Elements of the Practice of Youth Organizing

Putting the Elements Together

A Multilevel Framework of Youth Organizing Processes and Outcomes

Locating the Cutting Edge in Practice and Research

Chapter 4: Critical Consciousness: Current Status and Future Directions

The Research Literature on Critical Consciousness

Conclusion

Chapter 5: “Unapologetic and Unafraid”: Immigrant Youth Come Out From the Shadows

Demographic Patterns of Latina/o Youth

Lower Apparent Civic Engagement, High Ethnic Participation

Undocumented Youth: Graduation as Trauma and Performing Model Citizenship

The Higher Education Access and In-State Tuition Movement

Immigrant Student Groups

DREAM Act and DREAMers

Radical, Coalitional, and Digital Activism

Nurturing or Criminalizing Our Future?

Chapter 6: Early Educational Foundations for the Development of Civic Responsibility: An African Experience

Theoretical Grounding in Developmental, Educational, and Cultural Psychology

Paul Mumba’s Account of His Educational Innovation at Kabale Primary School, Mpika, Zambia, 1995–1997

Developmental Outcomes and Adult Recollections of Former CtC Pupils

Agency and Responsibility in Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Chapter 7: Youth Civic Development: Theorizing a Domain With Evidence From Different Cultural Contexts

The Primacy of Collaborative Practice

Groupways

Civil Society: Mediating Institutions

Younger Generations and Social Change

Index

Statement of Ownership

YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT: WORK AT THE CUTTING EDGE

Constance A. Flanagan, Brian D. Christens (eds.)

New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, no. 134

Lene Arnett Jensen, Reed W. Larson, Editors-in-Chief

© 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923; [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Microfilm copies of issues and articles are available in 16mm and 35mm, as well as microfiche in 105mm, through University Microfilms, Inc., 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346.

ISSN 1520-3247 electronic ISSN 1534-8687

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT is part of The Jossey-Bass Education Series and is published quarterly by Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., a Wiley company, at Jossey-Bass, One Montgomery Street, Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94104-4594. Periodicals postage paid at San Francisco, California, and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Jossey-Bass, One Montgomery Street, Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94104-4594.

New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development is indexed in Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA/CIG), CHID: Combined Health Infor­mation Database (NIH), Contents Pages in Education (T&F), Current Abstracts (EBSCO), Educational Research Abstracts Online (T&F), EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (Elsevier), ERIC Database (Education Resources Information Center), Index Medicus/MEDLINE/PubMed (NLM), Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (CSA/CIG), Psychological Abstracts/PsycINFO (APA), Social Services Abstracts (CSA/CIG), SocINDEX (EBSCO), and Sociological Abstracts (CSA/CIG).

SUBSCRIPTION rates: For the U.S., $89 for individuals and $343 for insti­tutions. Please see ordering information page at end of journal.

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE should be e-mailed to the editors-in-chief: Lene Arnett Jensen ([email protected]) and Reed W. Larson ([email protected]).

Jossey-Bass Web address: www.josseybass.com

 ISBN 978-1-118-28802-3 (epdf)

 ISBN 978-1-118-28803-0 (epub)

 ISBN 978-1-118-28805-4 (mobi)

1

Youth Civic Development: Historical Context and Emerging Issues

Constance A. Flanagan, Brian D. Christens

Abstract

The civic domain has taken its place in the scholarship and practice of youth development. From the beginning, the field has focused on youth as assets who contribute to the common good of their communities. Work at the cutting edge of this field integrates research and practice and focuses on the civic incorporation of groups who often have been marginalized from mainstream society. The body of work also extends topics of relevance to human development by considering themes of justice, social responsibility, critical consciousness, and collective action. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the civic/political domain as a context for adolescent and youth development. Signs that this field has come of age include the formation of CIRCLE (www.civicyouth.org), a national research organization and clearinghouse on youth civic engagement and the publication of the first Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement in Youth (Sherrod, Torney-Purta, & Flanagan, 2010). In addition, two prominent international reports on youth in the majority world devoted chapters to citizenship. Both Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries (Lloyd, 2005) issued by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Population and World Development Report: Development and the Next Generation issued by the World Bank (2007) considered the civic engagement of younger generations important in its own right, but also critical for the health of communities, economies, governments, and societies.

An Evolving Field

Scholarly interest in the civic/political domain had been increasing in North America and Western Europe, in part, due to concerns that recent cohorts of young adults had become disengaged from politics and civic life, and that the community organizations that ushered younger generations into civic/political life were on the decline (Putnam, 2000). Consequently, attention turned to the developmental precursors of adult political engagement and to a definition of civic life that expanded beyond electoral politics.

From its inception, this field involved practitioners and scholars from multiple disciplines, most notably, education, youth development, political science, and psychology. Besides its multidisciplinary character, it also was a field that believed in the reciprocal relationship between theory and practice. In this regard, the contributions of two bodies of scholarship are especially noteworthy. Research on positive youth development (PYD) and on service learning/community service both have focused attention on the contributions that young people make to their communities (Benson, Scales, Hamilton, & Sesma, 2006; Furco & Root, 2010). These fields have contributed to our understanding of youth as assets to their communities and as agents of social change; they also have pointed to the opportunities for civic engagement in the contexts where young people spend time. Research on civic education and on extracurricular and community-based organizations has complemented this scholarship.

What have we learned? First, youth are more likely to be civically active as adults if they have had opportunities during adolescence to work collaboratively with peers and adults on engaging issues and to discuss current events with parents, teachers, and peers. Interest in political issues tends to be generated by controversy, contestation, discussion, and the perception that it matters to take a stand. Second, young people’s sense of social incorporation (solidarity with others, identification with community institutions, being respected and heard by adults) is a psychological factor that is positively related to youth assuming social responsibility for others in their communities and for taking civic actions (e.g., voting and volunteering) in young adulthood. These relationships are true for youth from different social class and ethnic backgrounds. Third, there is a class and racial divide in the civic opportunities available to young people: cumulative disadvantage built up over the years of pre-school through twelfth grade (including the lack of opportunities to practice civic skills, the competing demands on attention and time of living in economically stressed communities, and especially events such as dropping out of school or getting arrested) depresses civic incorporation and civic action later in life. Fourth, besides opportunities, there are traits of personality (e.g., extraversion, confidence, optimism) that predispose some youth to join organizations and get engaged in civic action. Fifth, youth engagement in meaningful civic projects is positively associated with their psychosocial well-being and mental health.

This volume of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development builds on the extant body of work and pushes the boundaries in cutting-edge theoretical, empirical, and practical directions. Like the PYD and service learning paradigms, the focus is on youth as assets, acting in the broader and best interests of their communities. Nevertheless, contributors to the volume press beyond these paradigms by raising issues of social justice and unequal access to society’s resources for groups of youth who are marginalized from the mainstream. Further, besides identifying inequalities in access, the authors expound on ways that young people are contesting those injustices by taking action. Moreover, several chapters focus on groups of youth who often have been left out of the literature on youth civic engagement. Three chapters focus in particular on the political/civic actions of youth in the United States who are marginalized due to their social class, ethnic minority, or immigrant status. Two others draw from research on youth in the majority world.

The volume also makes cutting-edge contributions to theory in this field and in the broader field of adolescent development, in part because contributors have extended the boundaries of questions to ask, and of groups of young people to include in answering them. The lens is on the value of collective action and commitment to a common good for adolescent development. In itself, this is a departure from the more common emphasis on individual and interpersonal relationships in the field of youth development.

Organization of the Volume

Laura Wray-Lake and Amy Syvertsen open the volume with a chapter on the developmental origins of social responsibility in childhood and adolescence. This value orientation, which is based on empathy with others, transcends self-interest and links one’s well-being and fate with those of fellow human beings. Thus, social responsibility refers to obligations for our common good or shared self-interest with fellow citizens and human beings. Arguing that this value orientation is at the heart of civic/political action, Wray-Lake and Syvertsen trace its developmental foundations to socialization that emphasizes principles of care and justice and that respects children’s rights to participate in democratic decision making. Socialization practices such as modeling prosocial action (e.g., parents’ own involvement in community action) or emphasizing standards of concern or care for others when communicating with children nurture socially responsible children and adolescents.

In the next chapter Brian Christens and Ben Kirshner provide an integrative and historical analysis of the interdisciplinary field of youth organizing. They trace the evolution of this field that from the beginning was attentive to the insights and the anger of young people who were marginalized from mainstream institutions. The authors characterize the field of youth organizing as a combination of community organizing, with its emphasis on ordinary people working collectively to advance shared interests, and positive youth development, with its emphasis on asset-based approaches to working with young people. Based on an impressive body of scholarship employing different theoretical perspectives, Christens and Kirshner identify common elements of this form of youth civic engagement including relationship development, popular education, social action, and participatory research and evaluation. In just a little over a decade, youth organizing has evolved from an innovative, but marginal model to one that is widely recognized, respected, and adopted by community-based youth development organizations.

In the next chapter on critical consciousness, Roderick Watts, Matthew Diemer, and Adam Voight also apply a historical lens by locating the theoretical origins of this approach to youth political development in Paulo Freire’s classic work in Brazil. The capacities of people—regardless of their background or education—to analyze their society and their place in it is the process of becoming conscious, as Freire advocated. Not surprisingly, issues of social justice emerge when it is the powerless who participate in this process. However, awareness is only the beginning. According to Watts, Diemer, and Voight, besides critical reflection, critical action and political efficacy are core components of critical consciousness as an approach to youth political development.

The political consciousness and action of Latina/o immigrants is the subject of the next chapter. Author Hinda Seif illustrates several ways in which attention to the political activities of this group enrich the field of youth civic engagement. First, although undocumented immigrants are, in principle, the object of anti-immigrant discourse and policies, discrimination also is leveled at Latina/os who are citizens of the United States or legal residents because of their shared cultural/ethnic identity. Thus, Latina/o youth, regardless of their legal status, have a vested interest in a shared political cause. Second, attention to the forms that immigrants’ engagement takes expands the concept of civic participation. Although immigrant youth may not be eligible to vote, many volunteer in their communities and mediate between their cultural group and mainstream culture, often interpreting policy and the law for older members of their ethnic group. The high level of young Latina/o participation in protests against anti-immigrant legislation belies assertions that they are politically disengaged. Finally, Seif raises a developmental argument about the dawning of political consciousness in this group. Whereas they are guaranteed rights to public education in childhood, they are excluded from other routes to citizenship upon graduation from high school. Attaining the American dream via access to education has become the political cause uniting Latina/o youth and lobbying for DREAM legislation has resulted in many becoming political leaders, symbols for younger and older co-ethnics.

The last two chapters move beyond the United States. First, Robert Serpell, Paul Mumba, and Tamara Chansa-Kabali describe an innovative elementary curriculum in a rural community in Zambia and document the long-term impact on social responsibility in young adulthood. The Child-to-Child (CtC) curriculum focuses on health education and practices that enable children to assume responsibility for the health of younger peers. President Kenneth Kaunda officially launched the program in Zambia with a call for all children to consider themselves champions of people’s health. The curriculum builds on the common practices of many African cultures of assigning children responsibilities for the community early in life. Mumba describes the democratic practices that he adopted as a teacher of the CtC curriculum including mixed-gender peer groups that emphasized interdependence in learning; gender neutrality in the allocation of tasks and leadership; group collaboration and evaluations based on group performance, which encouraged faster learners to help slower students; children’s rights to voice and to disagree with one another; and opportunities for contributing to the nurturant care of younger children and for engagement in public service. The authors end their chapter with a summary of their follow-up research with young adults seventeen years after completing the CtC program. Participants reported that involvement in CtC promoted their personal agency, cooperative disposition, attitudes toward gender equality, and civic responsibility in early adulthood.

The volume closes with a chapter by Constance Flanagan, M. Loreto Martinez, Patricio Cumsille, and Tsakani Ngomane. Drawing from studies and historical events in many parts of the majority world, these authors argue that there are certain universal aspects of the civic domain in youth development. These include the primacy of collective action for forming political identities and ideas and the greater heterogeneity of encounters in the civic when compared to other activity domains; the groupways or accumulated opportunities for acting over the course of childhood and adolescence due to the groups (cultural, gender, social class, caste, etc.) to which a young person belongs; and the role of mediating institutions (schools, community-based organizations, etc.) as spaces where the younger generation’s collective actions contribute to political stability and change. The authors argue that theory in the broader field of youth development could be enriched by systematically attending to these common elements of the civic domain.

Conclusion

The chapters in this volume have in common a set of understandings that are drawn from the contemporary scholarship on positive youth development and civic engagement. For example, all of the authors embrace perspectives on young people as societal assets that should be supported to develop to their greatest potential, rather than treated as latent problems or sheltered from interactions with their communities. All of the authors argue for more intergenerational and inclusive public policies and practices in community and organizational settings. Moreover, all authors share the perspective that societies are enhanced when young people are able to participate and contribute in meaningful ways. These core understandings have been steadily gaining wider acceptance, not only in the study of childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood, but also in practice across many fields and settings.

However, the chapters in this volume also go further by pointing to emerging directions within the young field of youth civic development. Drawing out the various strands from this issue, we believe that there are cases to be made for several pertinent and emerging directions for theory, research, and action. First, issues of justice and power continue to dwell at the margins of the larger discussions on positive youth development and the most prevalent models for youth civic engagement (e.g., service learning, volunteering). More of these models, and more of the empirical and theoretical work on positive youth development, should consider the implications of systematic injustices and the possibilities for building power among marginalized groups and solidarity across lines of difference. Second, the majority world should feature more prominently in research on youth civic development—for theory’s sake, if not for the simple reason that the majority world is home to the vast majority of young people. Third, the challenges faced by marginalized populations in both the majority and minority worlds should become the focus of more action-oriented work on positive youth development and civic engagement. Growing inequalities mean that the need is ever greater for models that engage young people in the task of addressing social and political challenges through democratic action. More of the research on youth development and civic engagement should meet these challenges head on (Watts & Flanagan, 2007).

The contributions of the volume to theory also derive from the fact that the authors take seriously Kurt Lewin’s (1951) commitment to action research and his appreciation that both theory and practice are enriched when scholars and practitioners collaborate in defining the questions and methods of inquiry. Lewin’s observation is now six decades old but still resonates today:

Many psychologists working today in an applied field are keenly aware of the need for close cooperation between theoretical and applied psychology. This can be accomplished in psychology, as it has been accomplished in physics, if the theorist does not look toward applied problems with highbrow aversion or with a fear of social problems, and if the applied psychologist realizes that there is nothing so practical as a good theory. (p. 169)

The intimate connection between theory and practice is a common denominator in these chapters. For example, youth organizing is based on an integration of community-based practice with scholarship and analysis of the practice. Theory about social change in the gender attitudes of young adults in Zambia emerges from a careful analysis of the practice in the CtC curriculum that tried to change those attitudes.

Through this interconnected view of research and practice, the chapters in this volume also identify applications to practice. These are relevant across the full spectrum of youth-oriented and intergenerational settings (e.g., educational institutions, after-school programs, nonprofit organizations) and the policies that support this work. Critical consciousness (Watts, Diemer & Voight, this volume) and social responsibility (Wray-Lake & Syvertsen, this volume) provide two conceptual anchor points for practice. In addition, both concepts represent potential target outcomes for youth programming and education. Experiential education and participatory action research are two of the most promising mechanisms for developing social responsibility and critical consciousness. Examples of programs and settings that incorporate these mechanisms include youth organizing initiatives like those described by Christens and Kirshner, youth-led curricula like the CtC curriculum described in the chapter by Serpell, Mumba, and Chansa-Kabali, and involvement in social movements like the young leaders organizing for immigrant rights described in the chapter by Seif. Further, the more common settings that youth inhabit (e.g., schools, sports teams, and other extracurricular activities) can become more explicit in their intent to cultivate civic development including social responsibility and critical consciousness.

Besides practice, theories of youth development also are enriched by attention to the civic domain. As Flanagan, Martinez, Cumsille, and Ngomane discuss, there are universal aspects of this domain that transcend particular polities and cultures. Scholarly attention to the collective actions of young people working to make their schools or their nations more inclusive may yield new insights into ways that people fulfill the human need to belong. Exposure to more heterogeneous people and perspectives through civic action may enhance adolescents’ intellectual and reflective capacities. Moreover, understanding why young people engage in civic work may expand theories of motivation and purpose. In particular, attention to the civic actions of young people who are all too often absent from research should expand our paradigms of youth development and the way we frame our inquiries. This volume of New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development signifies that youth civic engagement has come of age as an important domain of youth development. Nonetheless, in its relatively short life span, the field has evolved and the future is wide open.

References

Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., Hamilton, S. F., & Sesma Jr., A. (2006). Positive youth development: Theory, research, and applications. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology. Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 894–941). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Christens, B. D., & Kirshner, B. (2011). Taking stock of youth organizing: An interdisciplinary perspective. In C. A. Flanagan & B. D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 27–41.

Flanagan, C. A., Martinez, M. L., Cumsille, P., & Ngomane, T. (2011). Youth civic development: Theorizing a domain with evidence from different cultural contexts. In C. A. Flanagan & B. D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 95–109.

Furco, A., & Root, S. (2010). Research demonstrates the value of service learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(5), 16–20. Retrieved from http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/index.htm.

Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science: Selected theoretical papers, D. Cartwright (Ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row. (Original work published 1944)

Lloyd, C. B. (Ed.). (2005). Growing up global: The changing transitions to adulthood in developing countries. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Seif, H. (2011). “Unapologetic and unafraid”: Immigrant youth come out from the shadows. In C. A. Flanagan & B. D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 59–75.

Serpell, R., Mumba, P., & Chansa-Kabali, T. (2011). Early educational foundations for the development of civic responsibility: An African experience. In C. A. Flanagan & B. D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 77–93.

Sherrod, L., Torney-Purta, J., & Flanagan, C. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Watts, R. J., Diemer, M. A., & Voight, A. M. (2011). Critical consciousness: Current status and future directions. In C. A. Flanagan & B. D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 43–57.

Watts, R. J., & Flanagan, C. (2007). Pushing the envelope on youth civic engagement: A developmental and liberation psychology perspective. Journal of Community Psychology, 35(6), 779–792. doi:10.1002/jcop.20178

World Bank. (2007). World development report 2007: Development and the next generation. Washington, DC: Author.

Wray-Lake, L., & Syvertsen, A. K. (2011). The developmental roots of social responsibility in childhood and adolescence. In C. A. Flanagan & B. D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development: Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 11–25.

CONSTANCE A. FLANAGAN is professor of human ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. E-mail: [email protected]

BRIAN D. CHRISTENS is assistant professor of human ecology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. E-mail: [email protected]

2

The Developmental Roots of Social Responsibility in Childhood and Adolescence

Laura Wray-Lake, Amy K. Syvertsen

Abstract

Social responsibility is a value orientation, rooted in democratic relationships with others and moral principles of care and justice, that motivates certain civic actions. Given its relevance for building stronger relationships and communities, the development of social responsibility within individuals should be a more concerted focus for developmental scholars and youth practitioners. During childhood and adolescence, the developmental roots of individuals’ social responsibility lie in the growth of executive function, empathy and emotion regulation, and identity. Efforts to cultivate children and adolescents’ social responsibility in the proximal settings of their everyday lives should emphasize modeling prosocial behaviors, communicating concerns for others, and creating opportunities to practice civic skills. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Children and adolescents are capable of making positive contributions to society, and developmental experiences during this time also set the stage for citizenship across the life span. Social responsibility, a sense of duty or obligation to contribute to the greater good, is a personal value that manifests itself in our beliefs and the way we live with others (Berman, 1997; Gallay, 2006; Kohlberg & Candee, 1984). In developmental science, social responsibility conceptually overlaps with a range of constructs such as moral development, empathy, altruism, and prosocial values and behaviors. Responsibility implies feeling accountable for one’s decisions and actions, reliable and dependable to others, and empowered to act on issues within one’s control. As such, socially responsible individuals are active agents in their development, imbued with a duty to act on moral and prosocial grounds. As an outgrowth of the already rich literatures on prosocial, moral, cognitive, and identity development, social responsibility is at the cutting edge of developmental science because of its emphasis on responsibility and direct implications for positive social change through the cultivation of values and actions.

To be intentional about cultivating social responsibility within individuals, we first need to know what it is and how it develops. In this chapter, we focus on personal and environmental characteristics in childhood and adolescence that undergird the promotion of social responsibility. Our aims are threefold. First, we define social responsibility in terms of development while emphasizing core elements that are shared across theoretical traditions. Second, grounded in a developmental perspective, we seek to identify aspects of childhood and adolescence that represent opportunities for growth in social responsibility. Third, we turn to contexts, focusing on the proximal settings of youth’s everyday lives that encourage social responsibility.

Defining Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is a concept used across the fields of business, economics, political science, and positive psychology. Across disciplines, social responsibility is defined as reflecting concerns that extend beyond personal wants, needs, or gains (Gallay, 2006). Adopting a developmental lens, we consider social responsibility to be a value