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The present study investigated how school climate, school connectedness and academic efficacy beliefs inform emergent civic engagement behaviors among middle school youth of color. These associations were examined both concurrently and longitudinally using a developmentally appropriate measure of civic engagement. Data were drawn from two subsamples of a larger study of social/emotional development in middle school (cross-sectional sample n = 324; longitudinal sample n = 232), M = 12 years old, 46 % female, 53 % male. Forty-two percent (42.2 %) of the sample self-identified as African American, 19.8 % as Multiracial or Mixed, 19.4 % as Latino, 11.6 % as Asian American or Pacific Islander, 11.6 % identified as Other, and 5.2 % as Native American. The study tested and found support for a latent mediation model in which more positive perceptions of school climate were positively related to school connectedness, and this in turn, was positively associated with civic engagement; school climate was also positively associated with academic-self-efficacy beliefs, but such beliefs did not mediate the climate-civic engagement association. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

This study used short-term longitudinal data to examine the contributions of democratic teaching practices (e.g., the Developmental Designs approach) and equitable school climate to civic engagement attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors among 515 Black and Latino middle school students (47.9% male). Concurrent experiences of democratic homeroom and classroom practices, and equitable school climate were associated with higher scores on each civic engagement component. The relation between classroom practices and civic attitudes was more robust when school climate was seen as more equitable. Longitudinally, homeroom practices and equitable school climate predicted higher civic attitudes 1 year later. Discussion focuses on civic attitudes and future research on school experiences that support civic engagement among youth of color.

The current study grounds itself in the voices of self-identified, justice-oriented, YWOC (N = 7) who participated in a community leadership program. In concert with their peers, these YWOC received training on how to design and implement a social change project in their communities. I explore these young womens’ perceptions of how their experiences with and within families influence their understandings of social oppression, their commitments to social change, and their imaginings of liberation. Empirical investigations of the influence of family on sociopolitical understandings has tended to examine family influence in conjunction with other relational contexts (e.g., community, peers). Relatively few empirical investigations exclusively examine how family as a context informs YWOC’s social analysis (Diemer et al., 2006; Gordon, 2008; O’Connor, 1997). Furthermore, family context is usually studied in ways that under consider the realities that families and young women of color possess multiple identities (e.g., class, race, immigration status) that have implications for how power is experienced and understood within and outside of the family. To address my research question, I use a within group (i.e., emic) exploratory qualitative approach to examine how justice-oriented YWOC (N = 7) describe the ways their families inform their understandings and imaginings of oppression and liberation. This study revealed that macro-level sociopolitical dynamics (e.g., oppression, liberation) play out through family relations. When oppression plays out in sites of love/care (e.g., family) we are reminded of the contradictions/dualities of power. Within family, power can be used to both maintain oppression and foster liberation. The study’s sample describes various instances in which they describe the ability of their family members to do both.