Pre-college Factors Influencing College Students’ Civic Attitudes: The Importance of Familial and Community Service Experiences

Abstract

Entering university students (N = 178) were surveyed in the fall of 2013 to learn about their attitudes toward college and civic engagement. As with students beginning study at the same university five to seven years earlier, participants felt positive about the institution’s public service graduation requirement and indicated plans to engage in substantial service during college. Their civic attitudes were as or slightly more positive than those of students surveyed earlier, but they were less positive in their self-reported knowledge of the community. Students’ reports of family orientation toward community service predicted their views of the graduation requirement, as well as their civic attitudes (i.e., civic responsibility, value placed on community service, and social justice). Replicating earlier research, students’ pre-college community service, especially their reported enjoyment of service activities, predicted attitudes toward the graduation requirement and civic attitudes. A mediation model showed that the effects of family orientation on civic attitudes were partially mediated by students’ involvement in service during secondary school years. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for K-12 and college programming.