Examining the relationship between civic engagement and mental health in young adults: a systematic review of the literature
Open accessAbstract
Researchers have examined civic engagement as a health promotion tool among older adults and adolescents, yet less is known about its mental health implications for young adults. This systematic review identified 53 articles on civic engagement and well-being in young adults. Five key themes emerged: (1) varying associations between type of civic engagement and well-being, (2) duration and frequency of civic behaviors, (3) directionality in the civic-to-well-being pathway, (4) mediation and moderation factors affecting the civic-to-well-being pathway, and (5) civic engagement as a tool for coping with adversity or systemic oppression. Civic engagement demonstrates a heterogeneous relationship to well-being; future research should focus on the explanatory pathways for positive, negative, and null correlations particularly among historically marginalized young adults.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Existing reviews generally support links between civic engagement and well-being, although the associations are not always uniform.
“These reviews generally support links between these constructs, although the associations are not always uniform.”
From The Effect of Civic Engagement on Different Dimensions of Well-Being in Youth: A Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as Fenn et al., 2022
Cites
The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., et al. (2021) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.n71 · Cited by 108,283 · see citing works
Age of onset of mental disorders: a review of recent literature
Kessler, R. C., Amminger, G. P., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Lee, S., & ??st??n, T. B. (2007) · Current Opinion in Psychiatry · doi:10.1097/yco.0b013e32816ebc8c · Cited by 3,457 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Given the psychological, civic, and political identity development milestones that occur during this transitional phase, young adults serve to bene fi t from clearer evidence for the use of civic engagement as a health promoter (Amnå 2012; Kessler et al. 2007).”
BackgroundMasten, A. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2010) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579410000222 · Cited by 1,800 · see citing works
Health Benefits of Volunteering in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study
Piliavin, J. A., & Siegl, E. (2007) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.1177/002214650704800408 · Cited by 477 · see citing works
Some Benefits of Being an Activist: Measuring Activism and Its Role in Psychological Well‐Being
Klar, M., & Kasser, T. (2009) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00724.x · Cited by 417 · see citing works
Political activism and mental health among Black and Latinx college students
Hope, E. C., Velez, G., Offidani-Bertrand, C., Keels, M., & Durkee, M. I. (2018) · Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology · doi:10.1037/cdp0000144 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Ballard, P. J., Hoyt, L. T., & Pachucki, M. C. (2019) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/cdev.12998 · Cited by 204 · see citing works
Mental health impact of social capital interventions: A systematic review
Flores, E. C., Fuhr, D. C., Bayer, A. M., Lescano, A. G., Thorogood, N., & Simms, V. (2018) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-017-1469-7 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Cicognani, E., Mazzoni, D., Albanesi, C., & Zani, B. (2015) · Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations · doi:10.1007/s11266-014-9481-y · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Wray-Lake, L., Shubert, J., Lin, L., & Starr, L. R. (2019) · Applied Developmental Science · doi:10.1080/10888691.2017.1326825 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Civic Engagement and Well-Being: Examining a Mediational Model Across Gender
Fenn, N., Robbins, M. L., Harlow, L., & Pearson-Merkowitz, S. (2021) · American Journal of Health Promotion · doi:10.1177/08901171211001242 · Cited by 39 · cited 5× · see citing works
“A survey study among college students found a positive association between electoral participation and well-being (Fenn et al. 2021).”
BackgroundInfluentialSelf-citationChan, R. C. H., Mak, W. W. S., Chan, W.-Y., & Lin, W.-Y. (2021) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-020-00303-y · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Effect of Civic Engagement on Different Dimensions of Well-Being in Youth: A Scoping Review
Mužík, M., Šerek, J., & Juhová, D. S. (2025) · Adolescent Research Review · doi:10.1007/s40894-024-00239-x · Cited by 24 · see citing works
“The topic of the association between civic engagement and well-being is not novel, as shown in several existing review studies (Ballard & Ozer, 2016 ; Fenn et al., 2022 ; Maker Castro et al., 2022 ; Vestergren et al., 2017).”
InfluentialCivic engagement and well‐being among noncollege young adults: Investigating a mediation model
Fenn, N., Yang, M., Pearson‐Merkowitz, S., & Robbins, M. (2023) · Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcop.23033 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Fenn, N., Sacco, A., Monahan, K., Robbins, M., & Pearson-Merkowitz, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Rhode Island (US)
- School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- Corresponding author
- Fenn, Natalie
- Venue
- Journal of Youth Studies
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-12-21
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 558-587
- ISSN
- 1367-6261 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-9680
- PMC
- PMC11068018
- OpenAlex
- W4312068975
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 4
- FWCI
- 1.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Youth Studies (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH078788)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Youth Development and Social Support
- Social Sciences › Education › Service-Learning and Community Engagement
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Keywords
- citizen participation, mental health, young adults, well-being, civic behavior, mediating and moderating effects, adversity coping, systemic oppression, marginalized youth, health promotion
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
