Examining the Role of Interpersonal and Societal Mattering in the Health and Wellbeing of Rural Adolescents

The Theory of Marginality and Mattering (TMM; Schlossberg, 1989) posits that when individuals feel as though they matter to others and to society, it enables them to engage in prosocial behavior that provides a personally and socially rewarding path through life. It is also expected to help them avoid engaging in risk behaviors (e.g., substance use, non-violent delinquency, aggression) that would threaten a rewarding life. Mattering provides individuals with motivation to behave in certain ways (Rosenberg & McCullough, 1981). In fact, researchers show that youth with higher perceptions of mattering are less likely to engage in risky behavior (Elliot, Cunningham, Colangelor, & Gelles, 2011), however, important gaps in the literature remain. For instance, few researchers have studied mattering among rural youth. Additionally, researchers studying mattering have focused exclusively on interpersonal mattering and have not studied societal mattering. In fact, no well-validated scale for measuring societal mattering among youth currently exists. Also, most researchers have examined mattering as a predictor, but few researchers have studied interpersonal and societal mattering as outcomes. Finally, few researchers have examined the process through which interpersonal and societal mattering influence youth risk behavior. This proposed dissertation seeks to fill these gaps in the literature. The aims of this dissertation are to: 1) develop and test the psychometric properties of a societal mattering scale for rural youth, 2) explore how perceptions of factors at the community, school, peer, and family levels affect rural youths' feelings of interpersonal and societal mattering, and 3) test a mediation model that links interpersonal mattering to youth risk behaviors through self-regulation and societal mattering through civic engagement.PhDHealth Behavior & Health EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145851/1/carissaj_1.pd