1."Learning about Politics from History: Political Generations, Democratic Engagement, and Transformative Events Learning about Politics from History: Political Generations, Democratic Engagement, and Transformative Events"
Principal Investigators: Nancy Burns, Henry Simmons Frieze Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan; Co-Principal Investigator: Donald R. Kinder, Philip E. Converse Professor of Political Science and Psychology, University of Michigan

2. "Sending the Right Message: How Communities Shape Young Peoples' Attitudes towards Politics"
Principal Investigators: James Gimpel, J. Celeste Lay (Doctoral Candidate), and Jason E. Schuknecht (Doctoral Candidate), University of Maryland

3. How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in The iPod Era
Principal Investigator: Anna Greenberg, Reboot

4. "Adolescents’ Trust and Civic Participation in the United States: Analysis of Data from the IEA Civic Education Study"
Principal Investigators: Judith Torney-Purta, Wendy Klandl Richardon, and Carolyn Henry Barber

5. "Promoting Positive Citizenship: Priming Youth for Action"
Principal Investigators: Jonathan F. Zaff, Child Trends, Oksana Malanchuk, University of Michigan, Erik Michelsen, Child Trends, and Jacquelynne Eccles, University of Michigan

Learning about Politics from History: Political Generations, Democratic Engagement, and Transformative Events Learning about Politics from History: Political Generations, Democratic Engagement, and Transformative Events
Nancy Burns, Henry Simmons Frieze Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan; Co-Principal Investigator: Donald R. Kinder, Philip E. Converse Professor of Political Science and Psychology, University of Michigan

Project Summary
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Our report evaluates the extent to which the 2000 election and the events of September 11, 2001 shaped the political beliefs and behavior of young adults in the United States. Taking advantage of the unique panel design of the 2000 / 2002 National Election Study, this report assesses whether or not those Americans in the formative stage of their political development-18 to 25 years old-were particularly affected by these historic political events. Examining changes in this group of Americans' political attitudes and behaviors from 2000 to 2002, the report finds that the 2000 election and the events of September 11th had some small but unique effects on this cohort, increasing campaign contributions and newspaper reading and altering partisan attachment. On nearly every other behavioral and attitudinal dimension, however, changes among young Americans were virtually indistinguishable from changes observed in other age groups. The report concludes with the suggestion that it may take more time for the effect of these events to be fully realized.

Note: This report is not publically available at this time. It is pending publication.

Sending the Right Message: How Communities Shape Young Peoples' Attitudes towards Politics
James Gimpel, J. Celeste Lay (Doctoral Candidate), and Jason E. Schuknecht (Doctoral Candidate), University of Maryland

Project Summary
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Cultivating Democracy, a new book supported by CIRCLE, chronicles the political socialization process of over 3,000 high school
students from 29 economically, politically, and demographically
diverse communities in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.
Written by James Gimpel, J. Celeste Lay, and Jason E.
Schuknecht, the book offers a new framework for understanding
how young people form their attitudes toward politics and civic
life. The book suggests that for Generation Y adolescents, the
characteristics of the community in which they grow up profoundly
affect the political attitudes they form. These attitudes, in turn,
influence how civically engaged they will be as adults.

Drawing on previous research as well as the thoughts of numerous
high school students throughout the Washington D.C. and
Baltimore metropolitan areas, the authors attempt to identify the
local conditions that influence the political and civic attitudes of
immigrant and native youth. According to Dr. Gimpel, “We tried
to find the sources of attitudes that lead to political engagement—
not just in individual traits that are commonly tapped by surveys,
but also in the characteristics of the neighborhoods that shape
experiences during later adolescence.” The authors find two factors
in particular—the ethnic and political diversity within a community
and relationships with family and school authorities—play
significant roles in the development of attitudes necessary for
civic engagement. In addition, the book provides concrete policy
recommendations for mitigating the risk-factors within communities
that keep young people from developing the knowledge and
attitudes that advance civic engagement.

DIVERSE COMMUNITIES INSPIRE POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND KNOWLEDGE

Communities that are ethnically and politically diverse, regardless
of socioeconomic status, appear to do a better job of preparing
young people to participate in the political process than those that
are more homogeneous. For example, the authors find that jurisdictions where no one political party dominates seem to be home
to students who know more about politics and who feel that their
vote could make a difference. On the other hand, areas where
one party is consistently elected seem to undercut the incentive
to learn about politics and reduce the sense among students that
their views and opinions matter. According to Dr. Gimpel, “In
politically competitive settings, both sides occasionally win elections, at least locally, leading all but the most cynical to the conclusion
that the government is responsive. By contrast, in areas
lacking partisan diversity, many young people conclude that their
political efforts would have no value, generating low efficacy
among a sizeable bloc of such potential voters. It is no great surprise
that efficacy levels were low in our inner-city neighborhoods.
Local elections in these communities are settled so far in advance
that they do not stimulate much of a sense that an individual’s
voice counts.”

Poverty and other resource constraints in inner-city neighborhoods
are clearly detrimental to the political learning process, but
economic resources are not everything. Rural areas and some
older suburbs in the study were just as impoverished, but the students
in suburbs and small towns usually had much higher efficacy
and knowledge levels. This is attributable to community characteristics,
principally a more competitive political setting in which
participation was more highly valued.

SCHOOLS PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE

While diversity in a community contributes to the political socialization
process, the relationship that students form with school
authorities cannot be ignored. Curriculum matters, but students
will also judge the fairness of the “system” in reaction to how
they are treated by teachers and school administrators. As for
curriculum content, schools can help young people develop positive
opinions about the political process by providing civics
instruction that focuses on the inevitable role of conflict in democratic
politics.

According to the authors, “The difference between the youth that
like government-related coursework and those who do not lies in
how the two groups understand political disagreement.” Schools
that teach young people that conflict and disagreement are a natural
part of politics help them develop positive attitudes about
politically-related subject matter. The book concludes with nearly
an entire chapter of concrete recommendations for enhancing
civics education and curriculum and promoting political diversity
and activism at the local level.

How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in The iPod Era
Anna Greenberg, Reboot

Project Summary
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In a nationwide survey, 18-25 year olds from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and religious affiliations, including youth who do not identify themselves with a religion, overwhelmingly demonstrated their openness to religious diversity. Clear majorities also expressed more liberal political views than older generations on issues such as gay marriage and legal abortion. Additionally, a majority of respondents reported participating in some kind of community service and volunteer activity within the past year. At the same time, however, and despite efforts to draw young voters during the November presidential election, respondents ranked politics at the bottom of their lists of volunteer interests.

The survey-conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and sponsored by Reboot-reached 1,385 youth respondents, and included over-samples of Muslim, Jewish, Asian, African American, and Hispanic youth. For full survey results, see "OMG! How Generation Y Is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era."

Adolescents’ Trust and Civic Participation in the United States: Analysis of Data from the IEA Civic Education Study
Judith Torney-Purta, Wendy Klandl Richardon, and Carolyn Henry Barber, University of Maryland

Project Summary
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The purpose of this paper is to examine different facets of trust in the political system or civic realm and how they are correlated to the expected civic or political engagement of young people. The nature and effects of trust in social and political institutions have been studied in adults, distinguishing between various types of trust (in institutions compared with more generalized trust in people). Few studies have focused on how trust affects the political socialization of children and adolescents, who are in the process of developing their attitudes towards government and other social institutions. Our analysis uses data collected in 1999 from the IEA Civic Education Study of 14-year-olds to examine trust at three levels-trust in institutions with which individuals have little or no daily contact (those delegated as representatives in institutions such as the national legislature), trust in institutions with whose representatives individuals interact frequently (schools), and trust in other people. First in this analysis, levels of these three types of trust are compared in five democracies whose levels of political stability vary (Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, England and the United States). Second, correlates of individuals' levels of trust (including school climate and experiences with family) are examined. Third, trust, civic knowledge, school experiences, and family variables are used to predict levels of three types of civic or political engagement (voting, conventional political participation that goes beyond voting, and community participation). Levels of trust relate to the stability of democracy in the countries examined and to participation, suggesting a "threshold" of trustworthiness which a political system needs to establish in order to foster civic and political participation in young people. Additionally, different types of civic engagement are influenced differentially by trust and by other aspects of experience in schools. Civic knowledge is a predictor of the expectation of voting (and obtaining information about candidates), but it is not related to the expectation of civic participation in the community (through volunteering or collecting for charity). Service learning experiences show small positive effects on expectations of voting and larger effects on expectations of civic participation in the community (especially in the United States).

Project Summary
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Researchers from Child Trends and the University of Michigan led
by Jonathan Zaff recently investigated strategies for creating programs
and policies to promote positive citizenship. This research
challenges the traditional theoretical model that programs designed
to encourage civic engagement should focus solely on opportunities
to participate in civic behaviors, such as volunteering. Dr. Zaff et al.
argue that social and cultural interactions in youths’ lives and the
development of civic values are also important factors that shouldbe included in the model. Data from The Maryland Adolescent
Development in Context (MADIC), a large, diverse, longitudinal
study, conducted by Dr. Jacquelynne Eccles and colleagues at the
University of Michigan, was analyzed in three stages to develop
and test a new model of positive citizenship development.

CIRCLE Working Paper 03: Socializing Youth for Citizenship, a report on the first stage of the three-part analysis, investigates the predictors of positive citizenship in adolescents. The report provides evidence for the unique effects that informal social interactions have on youth and identifies characteristics that predict later civic and political involvement. One interesting finding was that the culture in which youth are raised can significantly predict youths’ citizenship engagement. Particularly, African American parents, who consider their race to be important and who participated in the Million Man March, were found to have children who are more likely to engage in positive citizenship activities.

The second report, CIRCLE Working Paper 04: Identity Development and Feelings of Fulfillment: Mediators of Future Civic Engagement, looks at the relationship between civic engagement in adolescence and in adulthood. As reported in this work, multiple factors from multiple social contexts in youth’s lives predict their civic participation in adulthood. Important influences include social support, socioeconomic status and the culture in which youth are raised.

The final report, CIRCLE Working Paper 05: Promoting Positive Citizenship: Priming Youth For Action, brings together findings from the first two reports to develop a full model of positive citizenship development. The model suggests that programs designed to promote positive citizenship may need to begin by focusing on: social interactions in youth’s lives, such as interactions with parents and peers; the environments in which youth live, such as neighborhoods and schools; and on civic values. The findings suggest that the process of civic development begins with socializing experiences in young adulthood which lead to civic participation in late adolescence. The participation in late adolescence, coupled with social influences at this life stage, then predict civic engagement in early adulthood. The report also calls for additional longitudinal research focused specifically on the development of positive citizenship.