Socialization for Citizenship through Community Service: Disparities in Participation among U.S. High School Students

This study examines participation in community service among a sample of 16,232 sophomores in 938 U.S. public, Catholic, and private independent high schools in 1990. Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), we investigate whether disparities in participation exist and to what extent these disparities reflect social, psychological, and educational differences among the students. The analysis is grounded in a social-psychological model focused on explaining participation among adolescents. We employ a multilevel analytic technique, the Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (HGLM). According to our estimates, early socialization, track placement, personal and peer values, patterns in the use of discretionary time, and attending a private school strongly influence participation, while psychological attributes are less salient.