WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT ENGENDERING CIVIC IDENTITY

Taking the position that there is a developmental process in the forma tion of citizenship, the authors reviewed studies that reported a link between youth's participation in organized activities and civic behav iors 15 or more years later in adulthood. Data uniformly showed that s tudents who participated in high school government or community servic e projects, meant in the broad sense, are more likely to vote and to j oin community organizations than are adults who were nonparticipants d uring high school. Results support the authors' view that participatio n during the youth era can be seminal in the construction of civic ide ntity that includes a sense of agency and social responsibility in sus taining the community's well-being.