Social problem Solving in Middle Childhood

1
Value-Based Predictors of Youth EngagementKelly
Campbell1, Michael Busseri1, Alison Duff2, Lisa
Loiselle3, Mark Pancer3, Linda Rose-Krasnor1,
The Centre of Excellence for Youth
Engagement1Brock University, 2North Carolina
State University, 3Wilfrid Laurier University
Abstract Youths participation may be influenced
by personal values, as well as the values of
parents, friends and peers. We examined the links
between values and engagement among a sample of
192 Canadian adolescents. In addition, we
examined the relation between engagement and
discrepancies in values between youth and others
around them. We found that self-values were the
greatest predictors of engagement. Weak support
was found for the suggestion that debate and
discussion with parents leads to increased
engagement, whereas consistency of values was
more relevant with friends and peers. Results
varied with the type of engagement and domain of
values. Implications for future research are
discussed.
Links Between Value Discrepancies and
Engagement  Each engagement index was regressed
onto the 12 absolute value discrepancy scores,
controlling for self-values. ?Over and above
self-values, greater General Involvement was
marginally predicted by a greater discrepancy
between self and parents with respect to social
justice values (?.28 p.013) a smaller
discrepancy between self and peers with respect
to friendship values (?-.29 p.019) ?Political
Involvement was not significantly predicted by
any discrepancy scores over and above self
values. ?Over and above self values, greater
Ethnic-Community Involvement was marginally
predicted by a smaller discrepancy between
self and friends with respect to ambition values
(?-.21 p.049) Given the few significant
effects at marginal significance levels, there is
little evidence that the discrepancy between
self-values and others values is an important
influence on engagement. The data weakly
suggest that the debate model may be operating
for parents with respect to General Involvement,
whereas the consistency model might be more
relevant with peers for both General and
Ethnic-Community Involvement.
Measures Youth Engagement (adapted from Pancer,
Pratt, Hunsberger, 2000, July) Ratings of
frequency of involvement in various activities
yielded scores for 3 factors1 1) General
Involvement (youth groups, volunteering) 2)
Political Involvement (political parties,
protests) 3) Ethnic-Community Involvement
(improving ones ethnic community and
neighbourhood) Correlations among indices
ranged from .41 to .53 Youth Values (adapted from
Pratt, Pancer, Hunsberger, 2000) Ratings of
the importance of value statements for
themselves and their parents, friends, and peers
Using the self-value indices, four factors1
emerged (1) Social Justice (2) Altruism (3)
Ambition and (4) True Friendship.
Correlations among indices ranged from .30 to
.44 Value scores were computed for each of the
4 factors from youths ratings of perceived
values of parents, friends, and peers, resulting
in 16 value indices. Value Discrepancies
Perceptions of values of parents, friends, and
peers were subtracted from corresponding
self-value scores. The absolute value of these
discrepancy scores was used. 12 discrepancy
scores were produced (self vs. parent, self vs.
friend, self vs. peers for each of 4 value
indices). 1For involvement and value scales,
components were created using principal
components analysis followed by oblique factor
rotation. Items with factor loadings of .40 or
greater on only one of the rotated components
were included. Index scores were computed by
averaging items within each component (for
participants who completed at least 50 of the
items).
Results and Discussion Means and Standard
Deviations of Value Indices are presented in
Table 1. Given that many variables were included
in each model, variables were considered
statistically significant at p lt .01 . Links
Between Values and Engagement Each engagement
index was regressed onto the 16 value indices
using stepwise multiple regression. ?Greater
General Involvement was predicted by (R2.185
plt.001) greater self-values for altruism
(?.31) greater friends values for
friendship (?.23) ?Greater Political Involvement
was predicted by (R2.123 plt.001) greater
self-values for social justice (?.36) lesser
parent values for friendship (? -.28) ?Greater
Ethnic-Community Involvement was predicted by
(R2.058 plt.001) greater self-values for
altruism (?.24) As expected, all engagement
indices were predicted by self-values. Youth with
higher altruism values were more likely to be
involved in General and Ethnic-Community
activities, whereas youth with higher justice
values were more likely to be involved in
Political activities. Thus, Political
Involvement may be different from the other
involvements, a result also supported by the
correlation pattern. General and Ethnic-Community
Involvement were more highly correlated with one
another than either one was with Political
Involvement. Youth who perceived that their
parents place a lower value on friendship were
more likely to be involved in Political
activities. Perhaps Political activities are less
mainstream and less accepted by peers. Thus,
youth who have learned from their parents that
friendship is less important may be less
concerned about the impact of their involvement
on their friendship. Values of parents,
friends, and peers likely influence self-values.
Others values and self-values were highly
correlated (see Table 2) thus others values may
have an indirect effect on engagement indices,
through their influence on self-values.
Introduction Meaningful youth engagement has the
potential to benefit both youth and their
communities. Youths participation may be
influenced by personal values, as well as
parents and peers values. Further, frequency of
engagement may be specifically related to
discrepancies in values between youth and
individuals around them. Through social-learning,
discrepancies may either encourage or discourage
youth engagement, depending on the direction of
the discrepancy (e.g., Rosenhan, 1970). For
example, if a youths parents or peers have
greater values than the youth, he/she may imitate
these individuals and become more engaged.
However, even contact with individuals with lower
values may increase engagement. Conflict could
inspire self-reflection that leads to the
consideration of new values and principles
(Friedman, 1989) or strengthening of pre-existing
values (Damon, 1996). Thus, we examined the links
between frequency of engagement and the values of
the youth and people around them, as well as
discrepancies in values between youth and their
parents, friends, and peers.
Summary and Conclusions Self-values are the
greatest predictors of engagement. Generally, the
findings are consistent with the suggestion that
others values influence engagement indirectly
(through self-values). Given that there was
some weak support for the debate model with
parents, future research might examine the
influence of the frequency of discussions
regarding values (perhaps in interaction with the
value discrepancies). Given that the
friendships and peer relationships of males and
females tend to be quite different, moderating
effects of gender may be important. It will
also be important to examine the relations among
these variables over time. For example, current
value discrepancies may predict future engagement
and/or vice-versa.
Table 1. Means (Standard Deviation in
Parentheses) of Value Indices for Self, Parents,
Friends, and PeersValue Index Self
Parent Friend PeerSocial Justice
4.5 (.56) 4.1 (.71) 4.1 (.70) 3.7
(.79) Altruism 4.0 (.76) 3.8 (.84) 3.3
(.80) 3.1 (.82) Ambition 4.3 (.65) 4.3
(.63) 4.0 (.67) 3.7 (.69) True Friendship
4.4 (.61) 4.1 (.81) 4.1 (.67) 3.8 (.77)  
Participants Youth who applied to attend one of
three Canadian youth conferences were sent
questionnaires by mail. 192 youth completed the
survey (47 males, 145 females). M age 16.64
years (SD 1.03), ranging from 14 to 19.
The Centres of Excellence are a Health
Canada-funded program. The opinions expressed in
this publication do not necessarily reflect those
of Health Canada.