Types of Voluntary Service and Adolescents’ Civic Development

The goal of this study was to examine whether and which types of voluntary service might facilitate the civic development of adolescents. The sample consisted of 428 students who were drawn from two administrations of a survey at a public high school in the Boston area. The hypothesis proposed that students who performed service that aided people in need or addressed social issues would lead to greater concern for social issues and higher intended levels of civic engagement. When these types of service were compared to other forms of service or no service, analyses showed that social cause service participation was positively related to concern for social issues, future unconventional civic intentions, and future intended service. Results were interpreted as indicating that the developmental connection between community service and civic development may be dependent on the specific nature of volunteer activity that adolescents perform.