Hope for Regeneration: Increasing Civic Intentions and Values in Young People

Abstract

Civic engagement is integral to healthy communities and a functioning democracy, yet recent evidence suggests that it is declining, especially among young people. The purpose of this thesis is to address the recent decline by exploring ways by which to increase civic intentions and civic values in young people. To this end, three interventions were investigated. Studies 1a and 1b explored the potential of community-based young changemaker (ReGeneration) events to increase civic intentions (Study 1a) and civic values (Study 1b). The findings from Studies 1a and 1b revealed that ReGeneration events increased civic intentions and civic values, whereas the controls experienced no such changes. Furthermore, generosity uniquely contributed to civic values outcomes after controlling for initial levels of civic values, well- being and civic intentions. A factor analysis revealed that a revised, shorter civic values scale was a better fit in the present context.

Study 2 explored the potential for a prosocial behaviour reflection and writing task to influence civic values, happiness and future prosocial spending decisions (i.e. how participants chose to spend a surprise $10 windfall). The findings from Study 2 revealed that (a) following the writing task all participants experienced increases in civic values; and (b) happier people were more likely to spend their money prosocially, regardless of what they wrote about. Neither writing task topic nor windfall spending decision influenced levels of civic values or happiness. Study 3 explored the potential for acute inclusion or exclusion feedback to impact sense of belonging, civic engagement and well-being. The findings from Study 3 revealed that excluded participants had a lower sense of community belonging, but not other differences in well-being or civic engagement compared to the included or no feedback (control) participants. There were no differences between the included and no feedback groups in terms of belonging, civic engagement or well-being. Taken together, results suggest that the most promising findings in terms of increasing civic intentions and civic values were from the community sample, as ReGeneration participants experienced significant increases in both compared to controls (Studies 1a and 1b), although a brief writing task also increased civic values (Study 2). To this effect, the present thesis describes novel ways by which to cultivate civic values, and highlights ways by which to address the recent civic engagement decline. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of theory and practice, and suggestions for future research directions are made.