Civic Participation: An Analysis of Macro and Micro Level Determinants

1. Civic Participation: An Analysis of Macro and Micro Level Determinants Levi Thiele University of Nebraska at Omaha

2. Introduction • Civic participation is an important foundation for the democratic functioning of a society. • Civic participation has several positive impacts. • Despite the plethora of positive impacts, researchers such as Putnam (2000) report sharply declining levels of participation in America. • This research explores the various factors that affect civic participation. Levi Thiele

3. Literature Review • Previous studies have shown that individuals’ personal characteristics, including gender, race/ethnicity, age, level of education, and income are associated with civic participation. • According to past research, community attachment is associated with civic participation. • Previous research shows that involvement in religious and other community organizations develops skills and values that nurture civic participation. Levi Thiele

4. Theory • This research employs an ecological framework. No single factor explains why some people engage in civic participation while others do not. • The ecological framework considers the complex array of factors associated with civic participation. Levi Thiele

5. Research Hypotheses • Community members who have higher levels of commitment to their community will be more likely to engage in civic participation. • Community members with high racial trust will be more likely to engage in civic participation. • Community members who have higher levels of community organization involvement will be more likely to engage in civic participation. Levi Thiele

6. Methods • Data for this analysis comes from the 2006 Social Capital Community Survey. • Total sample size of 6,514. • Sample characteristics • Female 61% • African American 10%, Hispanic 8% • Ages range between 19 and 106 and the mean age is approximately 52. • 32% have completed high school or less, 50% have completed some college, and 17% have some graduate education. Levi Thiele

7. Measures • The dependent variable, civic participation, is a simple count of five indicators: voting behavior, signing a petition, attending political meeting or rally, working on community projects, and participation in any demonstrations, protests, boycotts, or marches. • This study uses ten independent variables. The measures include demographics, community attachment, racial trust, and community organization involvement. Levi Thiele

8. Bivariate Results • Civic participation is significantly correlated with several demographic variables including: • African-American (r = -0.23, p<.001) • Hispanic (r = -0.24, p<.001) • Age (r = 0.16, p<.001) • Education (r = 0.45, p<.001) • Income (r = 0.32, p<.001) • Home ownership (r = 0.21, p<.001) • Community longevity (r = 0.14, p<.001) • Racial trust (r = 0.17, p<.001) • Religious participation (r = 0.29, p<.001) • Community organization participation (r = 0.54, p<.001) Levi Thiele

9. Multivariate Results • This study uses OLS regression and includes four models. • Model 4, the full model, includes demographic variables, community attachment, racial trust, and community organization involvement. • Civic participation is significantly associated with: • Being African-American (β = 0.28, p<.05) • Education (β = 0.18, p<.001) • Income (β = 0.06, p<.001) • Home ownership (β = 0.32, p<.05) • Community longevity (β = 0.26, p<.05) • Racial trust (β = 0.10, p<.05) • Religious participation (β = 0.23, p<.001) • Community organization participation (β = 0.38, p<.001) Levi Thiele

10. Discussion • Using an ecological framework, this research attempts to assess the impact of demographic variables, community attachment, racial trust, and community organization involvement on civic participation. • This study finds statistically significant support for all three hypotheses. • Community members who have higher levels of commitment to their community will be more likely to engage in civic participation. • Community members with high racial trust will be more likely to engage in civic participation. • Community members who have higher levels of community organization involvement (i.e. religious participation and community organization participation) will be more likely to engage in civic participation. Levi Thiele

11. Conclusion • The current research model indicates that multileveled factors affect civic participation. • Civic participation is affected by place and by race. • Future studies should explore causal relationships among community organization involvement, racial trust, community attachment, and civic participation. Levi Thiele