This project was undertaken with the general goal of improving the wellness of disadvantaged young people. Low-income, urban youth face a variety of ecological barriers to their positive development. These young people also have the capacity to reshape their environments in a manner more conducive to wellness. In this dissertation, I use a mixed method approach to explore how the civic engagement of urban middle-school students is associated with wellness both at the individual level and at the school-setting level. A quantitative analysis of middle-school student survey and administrative data from an urban district shows that students who are more regularly engaged in activities to help improve their schools and neighborhoods enjoy better educational outcomes, in terms of achievement, attendance, and discipline referrals. A second
analysis of these data show that an aggregate of civically engaged students in a school setting is associated with more positive school-climate and educational outcomes for all students, on average, in that setting. Finally, a case-study analysis of a student voice program in an urban middle school elaborates the mechanisms through which civically
engaged youth can alter the culture and climate of their school. In sum, this project offers evidence that encouraging civic engagement on the part of urban youth holds much promise for improving their overall wellness. Youth civic engagement may be a
strategy for simultaneously addressing multiple levels of ecology that influence youth development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11302012-160510 |
| Date | 12 December 2012 |
| Creators | Voight, Adam Matthew |
| Contributors | Maury Nation, Marybeth Shinn, Paul Speer, Sonya Sterba |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11302012-160510/ |
| Rights | restrictone, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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