Parental influences on adolescent involvement in community activities

Youth involvement in extracurricular activities reflects both family social ization influences and civic development. Parents can promote such activity through examples set by personal involvement in the community and through reinforcement of their children's interests. Using data (N = 362) from the 9th and 10th grade waves of the Iowa Youth and Families Project (Conger & E lder, 1994), we find that both the behavioral model set by parents and thei r personal reinforcement of children's actions make significant differences in the extracurricular activity involvement of boys and girls. However, pa rental reinforcement is most consequential when parents are not engaged in community activities. In this situation, warm parents are likely to reinfor ce their children, and this reinforcement strengthens children's involvemen t in community activities. The family dynamics of civic socialization deser ve more attention than they have received to date.