Civic Engagement in Emerging Adulthood: Variation by Gender and SES,and Association with Personal Adjustment

Abstract

This study analyzes civic engagement among Spanish emerging adults, exploring its association with psychological well-being and distress, attending to gender differences and other sociodemographic variables. 1,700 university students (64.7% women) aged between 18 and 29 years completed a self-administered questionnaire. Emerging adult women scored higher for civic engagement (civic awareness, civic and electoral participation) than men. Civic awareness correlated positively with flourishing and negatively with distress, especially among women. However, contradictory results were found for civic participation, which correlated positively with flourishing among men, but also correlated positively with distress, especially among women. Our findings help identify the most common dimensions of civic engagement in this vital stage and highlight the important role played by gender in the civic engagement of Spanish emerging adults.

Keywords

emerging adulthood civic engagement psychological distress psychological well-being gender differences

Introduction

Civic engagement is defined as a set of “individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern” (American Psychological Association, 2009). It is a dimension that encompasses both attitudes and behaviors (Adler & Goggin, 2005) that are indicative of a person’s belief that their life and its goals are connected to those of other people, and that they are therefore committed to building a better society (Flanagan & Christens, 2013). In this sense, civic engagement is considered part of one’s identity, which begins to emerge during adolescence and develops more strongly during emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2014; Cicognani et al., 2012; Erikson, 1968).

Being aware of which factors are associated with young people’s commitment to society and how this commitment influences their psychological well-being is vital to facilitating their engagement in promoting a fairer world. According to social contract theory, every society constructs a series of rules and agreements regarding what people need to do and how they need to behave in order to live in harmony with each other (Flanagan, 2013). As they mature, young people gradually gain a greater awareness of their role in society, with this role differing in accordance with aspects such as their sex or socioeconomic status (Núñez & Flanagan, 2015). In terms of sex, girls and women have been and continue to be excluded from political participation, through both cultural norms and socialization (Walker, 2000), since gender mandates continue socializing boys to be leaders and girls to be helpers (Cicognani et al., 2012). In relation to socioeconomic status, young people from disadvantaged contexts tend to have a lower level of political interest and electoral participation and engage less in community service than their more privileged counterparts (Schlozman et al., 2012; Wray-Lake & Hart, 2012).

Most research into civic engagement has been carried out in the USA (Wray-Lake & Ballard, 2023) and only a few studies focusing on this question have been conducted in European countries, such as Spain. The present study aims to explore gender roles and socioeconomic status (SES) in relation to the civic engagement of young Spanish adults, and to determine whether this engagement is associated with higher or lower levels of distress and flourishing. Whereas the association between civic engagement and psychological adjustment has been widely documented in the extant literature for many years in relation to adolescents and older adults, this is not the case for emerging adults, among whom civic engagement seems to be moderated by personal aspects such as a culture of belonging, age and gender (Fenn, et al., 2022).

Civic Engagement in Emerging Adulthood

The term civic engagement can be used to describe a wide range of values and behaviors (Cicognani et al., 2016). For the purposes of the present study, we use the definition proposed by Lannegrand-Willems et al. (2018), according to which civic engagement comprises psychological engagement or civic awareness, civic participation and political participation. Psychological engagement or civic awareness is linked to the development of cognitive capacity and civic values, as well as to the acquisition of knowledge about public and social issues and a sense of obligation to engage with them (Cheung et al., 2001). This dimension includes believing that people can and want to make a valuable contribution to society, and recognizing the importance of equality and one’s duty to help others and to make the world a better place (Hayhurst, 2017). In terms of the behavioral dimension, civic participation is defined as engagement in any organized, voluntary activity aimed at helping others (Jenkins et al., 2003), mostly at a community and local level (Adler & Goggin, 2005). Political participation, on the other hand, refers to actions aimed at solving problems by political means or influencing government decisions (Verba, 2001).

It is throughout adolescence and emerging adulthood when young people explore their own ideology and sense of personal ethics (Arnett, 2004; Erikson, 1968), and develop their civic identity and social behavior (Chan & Mak, 2019; Punksungka et al., 2022). However, although exploration begins in adolescence, it is not until emerging adulthood, which is defined as a period of tolerance of and openness to new ideas that enable individuals to gradually define their view of the world (Jennings, 1989), that most people start to question and define their place in society, thereby developing values and civic engagement (Mayer & Schmidt, 2004).

Civic Engagement in Spain During Emerging Adulthood

Young people’s interest and engagement in social and political issues has increased over recent decades. Sloam (2014) argues that, currently, countries such as Spain have an intrinsic civic-political culture that mobilizes young people to fight to improve their personal and social situation, much more so than in neighboring countries such as France and Portugal. In terms of electoral participation, which is a clear indicator of political participation, Spain also has a high degree of youth engagement, with 80% of young people claiming to have voted in the last elections (Spanish Youth Institute; Instituto de la Juventud [INJUVE], 2020).

Another factor that may help explain the high levels of civic engagement found among today’s Spanish youths is the silence that was imposed on Spanish society for generations. Franco’s dictatorship, which was established in 1939, implemented a policy of silence that remained in effect in the country. The policy affected four generations, the last one being the greatgrandchildren of those who were assassinated or suffered reprisals during and after the Spanish Civil War (Armañanzas, 2012) and who are now eager to make their voices heard. This combination of young people’s desire to break the silence, the social movements known as the 15M¹ protests and the emerge of alternative political parties on the margins of the traditional two-party system makes the study of civic engagement and political participation among Spanish emerging adults particularly interesting.

Civic Engagement and Gender Differences

According to previous research, women are more likely to act in ways that are more altruistic and community-minded, and to show an interest, be engaged and participate in social activities such as voluntary or care work (Cicognani et al., 2015; Jennings & Niemi, 2014; Wilson, 2000), whereas men participate more than women in public and political actions that are more oriented towards positions of leadership (Mayer & Schmidt, 2004; Verba et al., 1997; Wilson, 2000). The extant literature identifies a gender gap between civic participation and political participation (De Piccoli & Rollero, 2010), although electoral participation is viewed as an exception, since gender differences in this field are not so clear (Carreras, 2018). Women participate less than men in the political process, but participate just as much, or even more, in elections (Carreras & Castañeda-Angarita, 2014).

These gender differences have traditionally been explained in terms of social and structural factors and gender roles, which result in different participation opportunities and resources being available to men and women (Cicognani et al., 2012). Social role theory (Eagly, 1987) argues that men and women act in accordance with their social roles, complying with social expectations about what is socially and ideology expected from them. According to Alfama (2009), in Western societies, gender inequalities have been articulated in the past through the public/private dichotomy, with the public space being the domain of men and the private space the domain of women. Legal work, public actions and power were identified with men, whereas family relationships, care work, and home care were associated with women (Amorós, 1994). This had an impact on men’s and women’s perception of their responsibilities regarding, and access to civic participation (Cicognani et al., 2012), and although this formal exclusion of women from the public space was gradually diluted during the course of the twentieth century, many gender-based behaviors still remain in male and female civic engagement performances. The reason for the absence of a gender gap in electoral processes may be linked to the fact that it is more private than other types of political participation and requires a high degree of civic awareness and higher sense of civic duty, which is more common in women (Carreras, 2018).

Gender differences in civic engagement among Spanish emerging adults are slightly different from those found in other countries. According to the Spanish Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadística [INE], 2015), during emerging adulthood, women participate more than men in voluntary associations, although the percentage for political participation was similar for both genders. The lack of a gender gap in this latter kind of participation is also reflected in the data published in the INJUVE (2020) report, according to which, the gender parity observed in political participation may be due to the inclusion in this field of feminist and environmental movements, which are mostly led by women. Indeed, the 8M protests of recent years have been more intense in Spain than in other neighboring countries (El País, 2019). Everything points to the fact that young women’s movements are helping to close the gender gap (Alexander & Coffé, 2018), especially in Spain (García-Albacete, 2018). As regards voting, the latest election data reveal that emerging adult women voted more (82.1%) than their male counterparts (77.9%) (INJUVE, 2020).

Civic Engagement and Social Economic Level

In addition to gender, it should also be remembered that certain individual characteristics, such as income level and employment situation are also linked to civic engagement. Previous research has shown that people with fewer economic and social resources are more likely to be less engaged with their community (e.g., Finlay et al., 2010; Levinson, 2010). Verba et al. (1995) developed a theory about the influence of resources on civic voluntarism, according to which it is time, money and skills that provide the wherewithal to be engaged, and as such are essential for translating personal interest, information and knowledge into civic actions. For their part, McBride et al. (2006) suggest that people with low incomes are not necessarily less civically engaged, but rather encounter many more obstacles during their attempts to access the resources needed to participate. However, according to some recent papers, this pattern is changing, especially among young people, and those with fewer resources are now participating as much as, or even more than, their more affluent counterparts (Godfrey & Cherng, 2016; Wray-Lake et al., 2015). This indicates the importance of including social economic level in the analysis of civic engagement.

Civic Engagement and Psychological Adjustment During Emerging Adulthood

Few studies have analyzed the relationship between civic engagement and personal adjustment variables such as flourishing or personal distress during emerging adulthood, despite the importance of understanding the relationship between the civic engagement and well-being of emerging adults (Fenn et al., 2021). Studies that have analyzed this relationship have suggested that civic engagement is associated with greater flourishing and lower levels of personal distress. The research carried out by Ballard et al. (2019) with adolescents, and by Wray-Lake et al. (2017) with emerging adults, suggests that civic engagement has a positive impact on development and is associated with both health and well-being. According to these authors, volunteering and voting are two specific forms of civic engagement that are positively associated with mental health. Specifically, the greatest benefits deriving from civic engagement are linked to helping others. The social connections that this type of aid generates leads to positive emotions and helps people feel good about themselves. They also reduce stress levels among adults (Poulin et al., 2013), anxiety levels among young people aged between 18 and 25 (Oosterhoff et al., 2020) and depression among those aged between 16 and 42 (Landstedt et al., 2016). Studies carried out with young people indicate that participating in one’s community through civic actions may improve mental health, helping to satisfy people’s need for autonomy, competence and affinity and contributing to the construction of their identity, as well as to their positive development (Chan & Mak, 2019; Hayhurst et al., 2019; Wray-Lake et al., 2017).

A small number of studies have analyzed the specific association between civic engagement and flourishing, described as a state one step beyond well-being (Hayhurst et al., 2019). According to Keyes (2002), people who are flourishing have warm and trusting relationships, see themselves as developing into better people, have direction in life, are able to shape their environments to satisfy their needs, and have a high degree of self-determination (p. 208). In his paper on mental health in adolescence, Keyes (2006) found that those who helped and collaborated with their community several times a week had higher levels of flourishing. In their research with people aged between 16 and 32 years, Hayhurst et al. (2019) found that following the terrorist attacks that occurred in Christchurch (New Zealand) in 2019, those who volunteered, collaborated with neighbors and, in general, demonstrated higher levels of civic engagement, flourished more.

As stated earlier, few studies have analyzed the relationship between civic engagement and personal adjustment, and research into this association in Spain is practically non-existent. In light of the country’s current social situation, Spain combines a recent upsurge in political concern and engagement with a policy of silence that lasted 60 years, and is only now beginning to be questioned. On that sense, although in neighboring countries political and social participation may have beneficial effects, in Spain, where there is a long tradition of not getting involved so as to avoid problems, this type of participation may not be quite so positive. For these reasons, studying the relationship between political and civic engagement and adjustment among Spanish youths is of particular interest.

The present study has one principal aim: to analyze civic engagement levels among Spanish emerging adults, as well as their association with psychological well-being and distress. Following the social role theory, gender differences will also explored. This principal aim is divided into three specific aims:

To determine levels of civic engagement among Spanish emerging adults and the existence of any gender differences.

To analyze the association between the perceived family income level and employment situation of emerging adults and their degree of civic engagement.

To explore the relationship between civic engagement and psychological flourishing and distress, in accordance with both sex and socioeconomic status (SES).

Method

Participants

The sample comprised 1,700 undergraduate students from the Universities of (blinded), one from the north of Spain and the other from the south. Of the participants, 65% were women and 35% men, all aged between 18 and 29 years (M = 20.51 SD = 2.50).

As regards perceived family income level, 15% of the sample claimed to have a low or medium-low, 69% a medium and 15.9% a medium-high family income level. As regards employment, although all participants were university students, 18.3% of the sample were employed, 56.5% were unemployed and not looking for a job and 25.2% were unemployed and said they were looking for a job.

Instruments

Sociodemographic variables: All participants were asked to state their age, gender, perceived family income level (1 = low income; 2 = medium income; and 3 = high income) and employment situation (1 = I don’t have job and am not looking for one; 2 = I’m looking for a job; 3 = I have a job).

To evaluate Civic engagement we used 3 subscales developed ad hoc and based on Lannegrand-Willems et al.’s (2018) definition of civic engagement:

Civic awareness: this subscale measures the importance attached by participants to civic duty and responsibility, by asking them to rate a series of statements in terms of how important they feel the concept described in them is. The subscale comprises four items (e.g., Defending equality: I believe everyone should have the same rights and opportunities) rated on a 3-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Not at all important) to 3 (Very important to me). A high mean score indicates a high level of civic awareness. Of the three response options, “very important to me” was the one chosen most often, with a rate of 47.5% for the item “Keeping up to date with what is happening in my surroundings” and 70.7% for the item “Defending equality: I believe everyone should have the same rights and opportunities”, thereby indicating high levels of civic awareness. McDonald’s omega was .60. The EFA confirmed that the four items are grouped into a single factor that explains 47.78% of the variance.

Civic participation: this subscale measures how often participants collaborate civically in their community. It comprises 11 items (e.g., I have engaged in voluntary work) rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Never) to 5 (Many times). Higher mean scores indicate higher levels of civic participation. The data revealed a high degree of variability in terms of responses to the items comprising the scale, with response percentage rates for the “Never” option ranging from 70.4% (in answer to the item “Have you ever written a letter to a newspaper?”) to 6.9% (in answer to the item “Have you ever attempted to assist a neighbor in need?”). McDonald’s omega was .78. An EFA was conducted, revealing that a single factor explained 31.11% of the variance.

Electoral participation: this subscale measures one of the dimensions of political participation. It asks participants whether they voted in the last elections, using a single item with three response options: Yes, no because I don’t care about politics, and no because I disagree with current policy.

Flourishing: We used the Spanish version (De la Fuente et al., 2019) of the Flourishing Scale (Diener et al., 2010). This scale contains eight items (e.g., I lead a purposeful and meaningful life) rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree). Higher scores indicate higher levels of flourishing. The Cronbach’s alpha obtained was .81.

Distress: This variable was measured using the Spanish version (Bados et al., 2005) of the Depression anxiety stress scales (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), a questionnaire comprising 21 items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from 0 (Did not apply to me at all) to 3 (Applied to me very much, or most of the time). The instrument is divided into three scales: depression (e.g., I felt sad and depressed), anxiety (e.g., I felt I was close to panic) and stress (e.g., I found it hard to wind down). Higher scores on each scale indicate a greater degree of psychological distress. McDonald’s omega for the three subscales were .86 for the depression subscale, .83 for the anxiety subscale and .84 for the stress subscale.

Procedure

The data were collected using a questionnaire distributed among the students of (blinded). Questionnaires took around 30 min to complete. All participants were informed in writing of the aim of the study and were assured that their answers would be both anonymous and confidential. All students participated voluntarily. The study was approved by the (blinded)’s Ethics in Biomedical Research Committee.

Data Analysis

First, EFAs were performed to determine the percentage of variance explained in the two ad hoc measures. To fulfill the study’s first aim, t-test and chi squared tests were conducted, depending on whether the IVs were quantitative or qualitative. To fulfill the second aim, ANOVAs were performed in accordance with family income level, living situation and employment situation. Bivariate correlations were calculated to determine the relationship between civic awareness, civic participation, flourishing and distress among emerging adults; and ANOVAs were performed to explore the association between electoral participation, flourishing and distress. Finally, to evaluate the differential effect of Civic Awareness and Civic Participation on personal adjustment and test the interaction effect of sex, a regression analysis was conducted and the ModGraph-I program (Jose, 2013) was used to graph the moderation effect.

The data were analyzed using version 22.0 for Windows of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Results

The Civic Engagement of Emerging Adults

As shown in Table 1, the emerging adults in this study had high levels of civic awareness and low levels of civic participation and the majority voted in the last elections. Moreover, 11.8% did not vote because they did not agree with current politics, and only 4.2% did not vote because politics did not interest them.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of Civic Engagement, by Gender.

	Total		Men		Women		t	Cohen’s d
Variables	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	t	Cohen’s d
Civic awareness (1–3)	2.80	0.27	2.74	0.29	2.84	0.25	−6.75***	−.38
Civic participation (1–5)	2.01	0.61	1.92	0.64	2.06	0.58	−4.63***	−.23
Electoral participation	N	%	N	%	N	%	X ²	Cramer’s V
Voted	1,325	83.8	420	75.9^b	905	88.0^a	41.21***	.16
Did not vote because notinterested in politics	66	4.2	29	5.2	37	3.6
Did not vote because doesnot agree with current politics	190	12.0	104	18.8^a	86	8.4^b

Note. ^aStandardized corrected residuals over 1.96.

Standardized corrected residuals under −1.96.

***

p ≤ .001.

In relation to gender differences (Table 1), women scored significantly higher than men for civic awareness and civic participation. Women were also overrepresented in the group of those who had voted during the last elections, whereas men were overrepresented in the group that claimed not to have voted because they did not agree with current politics.

No significant differences were found in civic awareness levels in accordance with family income level or employment situation. Significant differences were found, however, in relation to civic participation, with emerging adults with a low family income scoring higher for this variable than those with a medium income. Civic participation was also high among those who had a job (Table 2). In relation to electoral participation, no significant differences were found in terms of either income level (X² = 2.73; p = .70) or employment situation (X² = 0.78; p = .09).

Table 2.

Levels of Civic Awareness and Civic Participation by Family Income Level and Employment Situation.

	Civic awareness			Civic participation
Variables	M (SD)	F; p	d	M (SD)	F; p	d
Family income
Low	2.80 (0.26)	1.19; .30	.01	2.11 (0.66)	3.75; .024	.04
Medium	2.81 (0.26)			1.99 (0.59)
High	2.79 (0.31)			1.99 (0.61)
Employment situation
No job	2.80 (0.26)	1.56; .21	.02	1.93 (0.57)	19.53; <.00	.73
Looking for a job	2.81 (0.27)			2.10 (0.61)
Has a job	2.89 (0.25)			2.15 (0.66)

Relationship Between Civic Engagement, Flourishing, and Distress

Among the emerging adults in this study, civic awareness was significantly and positively associated with civic participation (r = .12; p < .001) and flourishing (r = .21; p< .001) and negatively with depression (r = −.08; p< .001). Civic participation was significantly and positively associated with flourishing (r = .07; p < .001), stress (r = .14; p < .001), and anxiety (r = .11; p < .001).

When the data were analyzed separately by gender (Table 3), civic awareness was found to correlate positively and significantly with flourishing and negatively with depression among both emerging adult men and women, and to correlate negatively with stress and anxiety only among emerging adult women. Civic participation was associated with flourishing and stress among men and with stress and anxiety among women.

Table 3.

Correlations Between Civic Awareness, Civic Participation, Flourishing, and Distress by Gender.

	2		3		4		5		6
Variables	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women
1. Civic awareness	.13**	.08**	.24**	.18**	.04	−.07*	.01	−.06*	−.08*	−.10**
2. Civic participation	—	—	.12**	.02	.11**	.13**	.08	.11**	−.00	.04
3. Flourishing			—	—	−.27**	−.37**	−.33**	−.37**	−.52**	−.51**
4. Stress					—	—	.74**	.74**	.67**	.71**
5. Anxiety							—	—	.69**	.67**
6. Depression									—	—

p < .05. **p < .01.

Electoral participation was positively associated with flourishing among participants (F = 4.48; p < .001). However, when the data were analyzed separately by gender, this association was only found among men (F = 2.79, p = .02). Post hoc Bonferroni tests revealed that men who had voted scored lower for flourishing than those who had not voted because they did not agree with current politics (I−J = 1.94). No differences were observed in the rest of the analyses carried out, either for the entire sample or for men and women separately.

In order to determine the role played by civic awareness and civic participation in flourishing and distress, bearing in mind the effect of sex and SES, four regression analyses were conducted. In light of the differences found in the analyses shown in Table 3, we analyzed the possible effect of the interaction between civic participation and civic awareness and sex (Table 4). Regarding the demographic variables measured, our results revealed that SES contributed to explaining all variables: positively in the case of flourishing and negatively in the case of anxiety, depression and stress. SES was also found to contribute negatively to the three components of distress. In terms of civic participation and civic awareness, both made a significant contribution to explaining flourishing. To a lesser extent, civic participation also explained part of the variability observed in stress, and civic awareness did the same for depression. In relation to the interaction effects, civic awareness × sex had a significant effect on stress. This effect is shown in graph form in Figure 1 and reveals that, among women, stress decreased as their civic awareness increased, whereas among men, higher levels of civic awareness correlated with higher stress levels.

Table 4.

Regression Analysis of the Effects of Sex, SES and Civic Engagement on Flourishing and Psychological Distress.

Variables	Flourishing β	Anxiety β	Depression β	Stress β
Sex	.01	.11***	.09***	.14***
SES	.13***	−.12***	−.13***	−.13***
Civic participation	.10**	.05	−.008	.09*
Civic awareness	.23***	−.001	−.09*	.02
Civic participation × Sex	−.07^†	.06	.06	.05
Civic awareness × Sex	−.03	−.06^†	−.02	−.08*
Adjusted R²	.06	.04	.03	.06

†

1 > p > .05. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Figure 1.

Effect of civic awareness on stress, moderated by sex.

Discussion

Firstly, our results reveal that emerging adults in Spain have high levels of civic awareness, although their level of participation in community activities is low. This low level of civic participation may be explained by the changes in participation following the universalization of technology in all areas of life (Lizaso et al., 2018). The social media and Internet-enabled devices enable an increasing level of political and social participation and mobilization without young people actually having to leave their homes. The low level of participation found among the emerging adults in our study may therefore be due to the fact that the measure used focused mainly on face-to-face, offline participation, and did not contemplate participation in the virtual environment. A second possible (and complementary) explanation for the results found is that volunteering, the organization of socially-oriented activities, writing letters to newspapers and other such actions have many associated costs (in terms of time, financial resources and the need for information). This is not true, however, in the case of online participation and other lighter forms of getting involved, such as casting a vote during elections (Carreras, 2018).

Unlike with civic participation, electoral participation levels among the emerging adult in our sample was high, since practically 80% claimed to have voted in the last elections. This is consistent with that reported by both INJUVE (2020) and Carreras (2018). Moreover, the majority of those who did not vote did not do so out of a lack of interest, but rather because they did not agree with the direction being taken by current politics.

When gender differences were analyzed, emerging adult women were found to score higher than their male counterparts for civic awareness, civic participation and electoral participation (i.e., overall civic engagement). From the social role theory (Eagly, 1987), it makes sense, since our study measures civic awareness and participation oriented towards care tasks, community aid and voting in elections, areas in which women have been found to be more active than men (Carreras & Castañeda-Angarita, 2014; Cicognani et al., 2015; Wilson, 2000). Moreover, Alexander and Coffé (2018) argue that public opinion surveys have traditionally dedicated little space to questions about the role of women in politics or the civic engagement and importance of diverse manifestations of the feminist movement, thereby overlooking one of the most frequent forms of participation among women. This suggests that women’s participation may have been underestimated in past surveys.

In this sense, the data published by INJUVE (2020) contains an interesting finding about the participation and awareness of young Spaniards: over recent years, a large-scale mobilization has occurred Spain in relation to gender equality, which is “very clearly” reflected in the surveys (p. 241). In the recent 2020 survey, for example, young people were asked whether they had participated in an illegal strike, march or protest over the 2019 year, and what had been the social and/or political causes or issues that had prompted them to take to the streets. The most commonly-stated issues (accounting for almost 40% of all replies) were linked to gender equality, followed by those related to education, the environment and gender-based violence. Women are leading many of today’s political and social movements, such as the feminist movement, for example.

Our results indicate that emerging adults with a low family income are those with the highest level of social participation. This finding is consistent with that reported by Godfrey and Cherng (2016), who observed that whereas in the adult population low income level seems to be linked to low social participation, in the case of young adults, this association is reversed. One possible explanation may be connected to the characteristics of emerging adulthood, which is a period of optimism, idealism and enthusiasm, in which young people are presented with a wide range of possibilities (Arnett, 2004). These characteristics may drive young people, especially those who live in constrained circumstances, to try to fight to change society and make it fairer. It should also be remembered that our sample was comprised entirely of university students, who may have more tools than their non-student counterparts to try to change their reality.

Finally, emerging adults who had a job scored higher for this aspect of civic engagement than those who did not. According to Kinder (2006), as young people assume adult roles, so too do their political and civic participation patterns develop and stabilize. Moreover, in work settings, emerging adults are more likely to have experiences which prompt them to think about the broader political and social structures (Finlay et al., 2010), thereby helping to increase their civic participation.

Civic Engagement and Psychological Adjustment

Civic awareness correlated positively with flourishing and negatively with distress, especially among women. The relationship found in our study between civic awareness and well-being, highlighted also in the regression analysis, is consistent with that reported by Elias et al. (2016), who observed that the higher degree of civic awareness gained as a result of volunteering experiences was associated with positive psychological outcomes. This may be due to the fact that greater civic awareness encourages a sense of belonging (Duke et al., 2009), which is a key aspect of well-being (Hayhurst et al., 2019). In terms of psychological distress, the lower levels found, especially among women, may be due to the fact that commitment to the community tends to be stronger among females than among males (Wilson, 2000), resulting in stronger benefits for women of a sense of belonging and community integration, which in turn may decrease distress. This is consistent with the results regarding the moderation effect of sex on the relationship between civic awareness and stress. Among the young women in our sample, stress decreased as civic awareness increased, whereas among their male counterparts, the reverse was true, with higher levels of civic awareness correlating with higher stress levels.

The results for civic participation were more contradictory. Although civic participation was found to correlate positively with flourishing, the same variable was also found to correlate with stress among both men and women. The regression analyses also pointed to the importance of this variable for positively explaining both flourishing and stress. The association between civic participation and stress may be due to the fact that certain forms of civic participation, such as volunteering, collaborating with social associations or helping people, require personal resources such as time and energy. The difficulty of combining one’s private life with civic participation may have perhaps generated stress among the emerging adults in our sample, since such associations were not observed in terms of civic awareness. Furthermore, as Hayhurst et al. (2019) point out, civic participation is associated with well-being because it increases feelings of efficacy and resilience. The fact that this positive association with well-being was only found among men may be due to the possible negative effects of civic participation on women, which is reflected in the relationship observed between this type of participation and high levels of anxiety. One possible way of interpreting these gender differences is linked to that suggested by Wilson (2000). In his review on volunteering, this author argues that women see volunteering and other community aid actions as an extension of their role as carers, meaning that any failure to provide this support to others may result in feelings of guilt. There is currently still a gender gap in the distribution of unpaid care work, which mostly falls to women, meaning they have less time to dedicate to civic and political participation (García-Albacete, 2018). Although the women in our sample were all university students, most of whom did not yet have family responsibilities, they may have perceived the pressure of gender-based expectations and have felt more obliged than their male counterparts to become involved in activities designed to help others. Our results indicate that emerging adult women participate more than emerging adult men; this situation may therefore be generating feelings of being overburdened, thereby increasing anxiety levels.

Furthermore, in light of both the data published by INJUVE (2020) about the increasing participation of women in political and social movements, and the results reported in the present study, it is worth asking whether the association between civic participation and anxiety and stress among women is in fact partly the result of the content of the protests themselves. Advocating women’s rights is an activity that has a direct emotional effect on women, who often suffer the consequences of this action corporally (García-Albacete, 2018). Gender differences in the degree of interest in gender inequalities are evident, with women being more sensitive to these issues than men (INJUVE, 2020). It would therefore be interesting to carry out specific studies analyzing the repercussions of the women’s movements of recent years on women’s psychological distress.

Limitations and Final Conclusions

Our study has certain limitations. The first is the higher percentage of women than men among respondents. This imbalance reflects the situation in higher education in Spain, in which there is a greater percentage of female than male students (INE, 2021). The second limitation is the fact that all the participants in our sample were university students, which means that the results cannot be generalized to the entire emerging adult population. Consequently, future studies should try to recruit more balanced samples in terms of gender and education level. Finally, another limitation is linked to the civic participation measurement instrument used, which was more focused on offline than on online and virtual participation, which is very common among young people.

Despite these limitations, however, the results presented here make an important contribution to the study of civic engagement during emerging adulthood in Spain. Our findings indicate which dimensions of civic engagement are most common during this life stage, concluding that they are the ones which require the fewest resources and involve the lowest associated cost, namely developing greater civic awareness and voting in elections. Another contribution made by the study is that it focuses on a field that has received very little attention to date in Spain, that is, the analysis of civic engagement attending gender differences. In this sense, our findings shed light on the important role played by gender in terms of civic engagement. Finally, our findings regarding civic engagement and well-being and distress expand existing knowledge of how these variables work and shed light on the relationship that exists between them. They also highlight the differential effects of civic engagement on men and women and underscore the need to study these issues from a gender perspective.

Practical Implications

In light of our results, we believe that national policies should strive to foster civic participation among young people, promoting the role of civic engagement and citizenship throughout the entire formal education system, including higher education. We also recommend that social policies strive to facilitate access to opportunities for civic engagement. All citizens must have the right to free and universal education and public resources in order to reinforce their feelings of civic engagement. It is also important to strengthen active policies in favor of gender equality, and to foster the conditions required for the civic participation of women to correlate positively with well-being, as it does among men. Active educational and social policies are required to ensure that young people have resources and time available for participating socially, with this serving to enhance their flourishing rather than having a detrimental effect on their health.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank, Paula Dominguez Alarcón and Mari Carmen García Mendoza for their help in collecting the study data.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was carried out thanks to funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (EDU2013-45687-R) and Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and the European Regional Development Fund (RTI2018-097405-B-I00).

Ethical Approval

The present study was approved by the Coordinating Committee for the Ethics of Biomedical Research in Andalusia (Spain)

ORCID iD

Laura Sánchez-García

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings on this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Notes

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