The current study examined sociodemographic characteristics and political discussion as correlates of adolescents’ qualitative understanding of three civic behaviors. Participants were 743 adolescents (Mage = 15.87, range = 13-20; 55.6% female; 89.9% White) from a midsized city and a small rural town in an Appalachian state. Open-ended responses to three civic behavior scenarios, asking participants why should people protest, vote, and volunteer were content coded (28 codes total). Anecdotal statements are provided to illustrate the variety of themes that emerged among adolescents’ written responses. Adolescents applied domain-specific reasons (moral, conventional, and personal) for specific types of civic behavior. Structural justifications were provided for all three civic behaviors, suggesting that many adolescents reason about the broader, structural impact of civic behaviors. In probit regression models, coding categories were differentially associated with adolescent demographic characteristics and political discussion. Findings offer insight into youth’s divergent understanding of different forms of civic responsibility and shed light on individual differences in youth’s developing civic beliefs.

中文翻译：

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青少年公民推理的维度：个人差异的检验

当前的研究检查了社会人口学特征和政治讨论，这与青少年对三种公民行为的定性理解有关。参与者来自阿巴拉契亚州一个中型城市和一个农村小镇的743名青少年（法师= 15.87，范围= 13-20；女性55.6％；白人89.9％）。对三种公民行为情景的开放式回应，询问参与者为何人们应该抗议，投票和自愿进行内容编码（总共28个编码）。提供了轶事陈述，以说明青少年书面答复中出现的各种主题。青少年针对特定类型的公民行为应用了特定领域的原因（道德，传统和个人）。提供了针对所有三种公民行为的结构合理性说明，这表明许多青少年对更广泛的，公民行为的结构影响。在概率回归模型中，编码类别与青少年人口统计学特征和政治讨论存在差异。这些发现提供了对青年人对不同形式的公民责任的不同理解的洞见，并揭示了青年人在发展中的公民信仰中的个体差异。