Profiles of youth citizenship orientations: the role of the school, neighbourhood, family and peers contexts

Studies on youth participation tend to characterize youth as either active “good citizens” or as passive and alienated. It has been argued, however, that low levels of youth political activity are not necessarily indicative of complete disengagement from societal affairs but could be accompanied by interest and latent involvement stemming from a standby/monitorial attitude or from an attitude of distrust and need of critical supervising. A series of research, using a person-centered approach, will be presented with the aim to examine patterns of citizenship orientations among youth identified by manifest participation (civic and political activity), latent engagement (political interest) and one’s position toward institutional politics (institutional trust and external political efficacy). All analyzed data was collected through a two-wave questionnaire within the European-funded H2020 research project CATCH-EyoU. The proposed classification was analyzed in a sample of 1732 late adolescents and young adults (15–30 years old) from Italy, as well as in a cross-national longitudinal sample of 1943 upper secondary school students (15–19 years old) from Italy, Germany, Sweden, Greece and the Czech Republic. The results identify profiles of different levels of engagement, each characterized by either satisfied or dissatisfied attitude towards political institutions. The findings highlight the prevalence of latent engagement and the different faces political distrust may assume, including in different forms of participation (political, civic, online and activist). Moreover, the results explore how membership in the groups can be longitudinally influenced by socio-demographic characteristics and perceived contextual features related to school, neighbourhood, family and peers. Family background, democratic school climate, school participation and critical reflection at school were found to determine differences in the likelihood of adopting specific citizenship orientations among youth.