Sociopolitical Influences in Early Emerging Adult College Students’ Pandemic-Related Civic Engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic has had wide-ranging impacts on college-going emerging adults and their communities, which may prompt them to engage civically. Using spring 2020 survey data from a national sample of college students aged 18–22 (N = 707), we document the prevalence of pandemic-related civic en...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emerging adulthood (Thousand Oaks, CA) CA), 2022-08, Vol.10 (4), p.1041-1047
Main Authors: Yazdani, Neshat, Hoyt, Lindsay Till, Maker Castro, Elena, Cohen, Alison K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Candidates
Citizen participation
College students
COVID-19
Pandemics
Party identification
Political parties
Presidential elections
Social media
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic has had wide-ranging impacts on college-going emerging adults and their communities, which may prompt them to engage civically. Using spring 2020 survey data from a national sample of college students aged 18–22 (N = 707), we document the prevalence of pandemic-related civic engagement as well as differences in engagement by sociopolitical perspectives. The majority of participants (70.4%) reported engaging civically at least once, most commonly online (e.g., sharing information about COVID-19 on social media, volunteering virtually). Results showed differences in civic engagement by communal orientation and the candidate participants intended to vote for in the 2020 presidential election, but not by political party affiliation. Qualitative data provide insight into different motivations for pandemic-related civic engagement. We conclude that emerging adult college students’ pandemic-related civic engagement is partially motivated by their sociopolitical perspectives and discuss implications for future work examining emerging adult civic engagement more broadly.
ISSN:2167-6968
2167-6984
DOI:10.1177/21676968221098296