Civic and political participation of children and adolescents: a lifestyle analysis for positive youth developmental programs

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Rivera, Reyinaldo, Santos, David. Civic and Political Participation of Children and Adolescents: A Lifestyle Analysis for Positive Youth Developmental Programs. Children & Society 30.1 (2016): 59–70, which has been published in final form at https://www.doi.org/10.1111/chso.12118. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-ArchivingSocial participation plays a key role in predicting positive youth development (PYD). As a previous step of this link, this research examined how children and adolescents’ relational lifestyles influenced their participation in political and civic activities. This research provides a multi-dimensional approach to the study of children’s social participation, based on six children’s lifestyles factors (i.e. family dialogue, risky behaviours, cultural activities, civic values, family supervision and peer group relationships). Using data from an international survey that included 6130 participants (2198 Spanish, 3932 Italian, Mage = 13.8), this study’s results show that relational lifestyles (especially family dialogue and out-of-school cultural activities) are positively related to political and civic participation among children and adolescents. On the contrary, some peer group relationships decreased their social participation in those key dimensions for PYD. Limitations of the current study, implications for future policy decisions and applications to children social programs are discussed.This work was supported by the European Union (grant no. JUST/2010/DAP3/AG/1111-30-CE-0397890/00-02) and Intermedia Consulting A.C. (grant no. SSM2011-2013