Transforming Service into Civic Purpose: A Qualitative Study of Adolescent Civic Engagement and Purpose Development

Abstract

As tomorrow’s leaders, adolescents are navigating coming-of-age tasks in the context of both the fast-growing promises of technology and the burdens of overwhelming global challenges. The Climate Leaders Fellowship (CLF) is an extracurricular program that supports adolescents interested in environmental sustainability. Program participants are connected with like-minded peers and mentors across the globe who help them develop and implement community-based volunteer projects (CLF, 2022). This study focuses on whether and how participation in CLF shaped adolescents’ development. A directed content analysis approach was utilized to conduct and analyze semi-structured interviews with adolescent CLF participants (n = 9, 89% female). Results indicate that engagement in the program is associated with civic purpose development. Specifically, participants reported experiencing civic reflection, motivation, and action through their CLF involvement. Findings offer supporting evidence that the development of civic purpose may be associated with burgeoning critical consciousness. Recommendations for future programming, study limitations, and implications are discussed.

Keywords

• civic engagement
• purpose
• adolescence
• positive youth development
• qualitative methods