Civic Engagement as a Function of Parental and School Socialization and Social Media Use among School Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Perceived Competence for Civic Action

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to examine the civic engagement of school adolescents as a function of parental and school civic socialization, and social media with the mediating role of perceived competence for civic action. The research employed a correlational design. Participants were 1530 school adolescents in Addis Ababa aged 15-to-19-years (Mean age was 17.7) drawn through multi-stage sampling procedures.Findings indicated that all the three independent variables (parental civic socialization, school civic experience and social media use) were able to exert statistically significant positive direct and indirect effects on civic engagement. Specific indirect (mediated) effects of parental civic socialization, school civic experience and social media to civic engagement mediated by adolescents’ perceived competence for civic action. All the predictors of civic engagement reached level of significance and explained more than a quarter of its variance. The highest influence on civic engagement was exerted by parental civic socialization. Parental civic socialization and adolescent’s social media use (pairwise) contributed the largest variance in civic engagement followed by parental civic socialization and school civic experience. When combined, parental civic socialization, school civic experience and social media use contributed nearly a quarter of the variance in civic engagement. Conclusions and implications for practice and future research were drawn.