Integrated multidimensional constructs of adolescent civic engagement: opportunities for theorizing the role of normative developmental competences and social change

This review aims to demonstrate how integrated, multidimensional constructs of civic engagement help advance civic developmental theory and clarify the role of social change in developmental changes in adolescent civic engagement. When considering multiple components of civic engagement in adolescence, most research has treated each component separately, ignoring how they relate to each other and fit the multidimensional construct conceptually. Integrated approaches to the multidimensionality of adolescent civic engagement attempt to rectify these shortcomings. As components of adolescent civic engagement are theorized to differ in the associations with multiple normative developmental competences, the article assesses the empirical evidence and documents the benefits of civic developmental theory. Extending these approaches to the study of social change, the article advances the novel assumption that various manifestations of social change would not be similarly important for shaping developmental changes in components of adolescent civic engagement and reports the evidence.