| Jennifer Schmidt
Northern Illinois University
Participation in service activities and its impact on academic, behavioral, and civic outcomes of high risk students
FINAL REPORT:
Service participation has captured the attention of both scholars and policymakers in recent years, with a growing body of research suggesting that involvement in service activity benefits adolescent students in a variety of ways. A small body of research suggests that involvement in service activity might be of particular benefit to students whose life circumstances place them at risk for maladaptive outcomes, but it is premature to base policy decisions on those studies because they have involved small non-representative samples. At the same time, large nationally representative surveys have shown that students living in poverty tend to volunteer for service activities far less often than more economically advantaged students, suggesting that the positive experience service participation can provide is largely absent among those students who may stand to benefit the most from it. This study used data from the National Household Education Survey of 1999 to examine the impact of involvement in service activity on academic, behavioral, and civic outcomes among high school students, with a particular focus on the role that service may play among students at-risk. This study addressed the following questions: 1.) What background factors (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, SES, private/public school) predict the participation of adolescents in service activities? 2.) Controlling for these background factors, is participation in service activities associated with more positive outcomes among adolescents in general and specifically among those with higher levels of risk? Specifically, does participation in service foster resilience for adolescents at-risk (by family, peer or school risk levels) , as indicated by academic success, the absence of maladaptive behavior, or civic knowledge?
Adolescents who participated in service differed systematically from those who did not. Service participants tended to be female, Caucasian, in the 10 th or 11th grade, and from families with higher incomes and higher levels of parent education. Private school students were more likely than public school students to do service. In order to correct for potential selection bias introduced by these factors, propensity score analysis was employed in a series of regression models aimed at understanding the associations between risk, service, and the outcomes of interest. After adjusting for these differences in background characteristics, service participation was positively related to studentsŐ GPA and civic knowledge, and was negatively related to behavior problems. Results suggest that service may serve as a compensatory, rather than protective factor among students at risk. Across all models, the magnitude of the service coefficient approximated that of the family, peer, and school risk factors, suggesting that participation in service may compensate for the negative outcomes associated with any of these single risk factors. Interactions between service and risk were nonsignificant, indicating that service does not serve any particular protective function for at risk compared to other students. In general, participation in community service is associated with higher grades, greater civic knowledge, and reduced behavior problems across a diverse population of adolescents.
These results have relevance to educational policy in that they suggest that requiring youth to do service might have positive impacts on academic, behavioral and civic outcomes among adolescents in general and among those at particular risk for maladaptive outcomes. The findings are especially compelling because the data were nationally representative, and were adjusted to correct for the potential selection bias in the types of adolescents who engage in service.
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