Cultivating a Lifelong Commitment to Social Justice: A Quantitative Analysis

Leaders with a personal and professional commitment to social justice are necessary to meet the demands of the complex systems and structures that perpetuate marginalization and oppression. The purpose of this study was to better understand common experiences people perceived as influential on their commitment to social justice. The study was designed to quantitatively measure the perceived influence of five variables determined by qualitative research on the development of a social justice orientation. These variables were the influence of significant persons, exposure to injustice, education/learning, work experience, and religion/spirituality. The study found that all five variables are considered influential to personal and professional commitment to social justice using multiple statistical analyses. Other findings include race, level of education, age, and involvement in a religious tradition impacting the perception of influence of different variables as well as working with marginalized populations or experiencing marginalization. These findings have several implications for cultivating commitment to social justice across various disciplines. This article explores implications of these findings for the Catholic community of faith, with a view to generating high impact formation experiences that will foster lifelong commitment to social justice as an expression of Catholic faith.