Cited by 98Youth Development and Social SupportCitizenship Education and DemocracyElectoral Systems and Political Participation

The developmental quality of participation experiences: Beyond the rhetoric that “participation is always good!”

Ferreira, Pedro D., Azevedo, Cristina N., Menezes, Isabel·2012·Journal of Adolescence

Abstract

A powerful rhetoric regarding the importance of adolescents' civic engagement and political participation is common in contemporary societies, whilst citizens, both adolescent and adults, seem to express a growing scepticism and alienation regarding politics. Even if this disengagement is debatable, as there are simultaneous signs of an increasing involvement in a variety of emerging and broadly-defined civic and political activities, we argue that the benefits of these experiences should be scrutinized using psychological evidence-based criteria. We rest on classical contributions from developmental psychology, educational theory and political science to define criteria that could inform the quality of participation experiences, and then present two studies that explore its adequacy. Study 1 is a cross-sectional study that observes that higher quality civic and political experiences are connected with more complex modes of thinking about politics. In Study 2, a two-wave longitudinal design, the quality of participation experiences is a significant predictor of change patterns of political attitudes; moreover, results support the argument that participation is not good in itself and that some experiences, with lesser developmental quality, might have a detrimental effect on adolescents' political development.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.09.004

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Authors
Ferreira, P. D., Azevedo, C. N., & Menezes, I.
Affiliations
Universidade do Porto (PT)
Corresponding author
Menezes, Isabel
Venue
Journal of Adolescence
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2011-10-26
Volume
35
Issue
3
Pages
599-610
ISSN
  • 0140-1971 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9254
OpenAlex
W2021379532
Cited by
98
References
98
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
FWCI
14.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Adolescence (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion)
Funders
European Social Fund
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Youth Development and Social Support
  • Social Sciences › Education › Citizenship Education and Democracy
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
Keywords
political participation, citizen participation, adolescents, political attitudes, political development, political alienation, political disengagement, political thought, developmental psychology
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Politics, Portugal, Social Responsibility, Volunteers, Intention, Young Adult

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