Abstract
Mature moral and civic life is distinguished by respect for common humanity which develops through participation in community service. This proposition is illustrated by studies of adults who rescued Jews during World War II and contemporary adults who lead lives of moral commitment. These individuals do not view themselves as heroic but believe that their moral sense and actions simply express their identity. A putative developmental process is described by studies that longitudinally track youth activism to adult moral-civic behavior 10 to 30 years later and that detail changes in adolescents' thinking during a course on Christian social justice that required community service. Everyday morality seems to be rooted in an essential identity rather than being mediated by calculated reason. It follows that educators who seek to justify service learning can emphasize the identity process while pointing to the life-long linkage between youth participation and adult moral-civic activism.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Beane, J., Turner, J., Jones, D., and Lipka, R. (1981). Long-term effects of community service programs. Curric. Inq. 11: 143-155.
Blasi, A. (1984). Moral identity: Its role in moral functioning. In Kurtines, W. M., and Gewirtz, J. L. (eds.), Morality, Moral Behavior, and Moral Development, Wiley, New York, pp. 128-140.
Colby, A., and Damon, W. (1992). Some Do Care: Contemporary Lives of Moral Commitment, Free Press, New York.
Colby, A., and Damon, W. (1995). The development of extraordinary commitment. In Killen, M., and Hart, D. (eds.) Morality in Everyday Life: Developmental Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, New York: pp. 342-370.
Coles, R., and Brenner, J. (1965). American youth in a social struggle: the Mississippi Summer project. Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 35: 909-926.
Davidson, P., and Youniss, J. (1991). Which comes first, morality or identity? In Kurtines, W. M., and Gewirtz, J. L. (eds.), Handbook of Moral Development and Behavior, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 105-121.
De Martini, J. (1983). Social movements participation. Youth Soc. 15: 195-223.
Eccles, J. S., and Barber, B. L. (1999). Student council, volunteering, basketball, or marching band. Which kind of extracurricular involvement matters? J. Adolesc. Res. 14: 10-43.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis, Norton, New York.
Fendrich, J. (1993). Ideal Citizens, State University of New York Press, Albany.
Gross, M. (1997). Ethics and Activism, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Hanks, R., and Eckland, B. K. (1978). Adult voluntary associations. Sociol. Q. 19: 481-490.
Hart, D., and Fegley, S. (1995). Prosocial behavior and caring in adolescence: Relations to self-understanding and social judgment. Child Dev. 66: 1347-1359.
Hart, D., Yates, M., Fegley, S., and Wilson, G. (1995). Moral commitment in inner-city adolescents. In Killen, M., and Hart, D. (eds.) Morality in Everyday Life: Developmental Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 317-341.
Johnson, M. K., Beebe, T., Mortimer, J. T., and Snyder, M. (1998). Volunteerism in adolescence: A process perspective. J. Res. Adolesc. 8: 309-332.
Kahne, J., and Wetsheimer, J. (1996). In service of what? The politics of service learning. Phi Delta Kappan 74: 593-599.
Klandermans, B. (1997). The Social Psychology of Protest, Blackwell, London.
Ladewig, H., and Thomas, J. K. (1987). Assessing the Impact of 4-H on Former Members, Research report, Texas A&M University, College Station.
Kurek-Lesik, E. (1992). The role of Polish nuns in the rescue of Jews. In Oliner, P. M., Oliner, S. P., Baron, L., Blum, L. A., Krebs, D. L., and Smolenska, M. Z. (eds.), Embracing the Other, New York University Press, New York, pp. 328-334.
McAdam, D. (1988). Freedom Summer, Oxford University Press, New York.
Monroe, K. R., and Epperson, C. (1994). "But what else could I do?" Choice, identity, and cognitive-perceptual theory. Polit. Psychol. 15: 201-226.
Nolin, M. J., Chaney, B., Chapman, C., and Chandler, K. (1997). Student Participation in Community Service, National Center for Educational Statistics, Washington, DC.
Oliner, S. P., and Oliner, P. M. (1988). The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe, Free Press, New York.
Otto, L. B. (1976). Social integration and the status attainment process. Am. J. Sociol. 81: 1360-1383.
Tec, N. (1986). When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland, Oxford University Press, New York.
Teske, N. (1997). Political Activists in America: The Identity Construction Model of Political Participation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Tropman, J. E. (1995). The Catholic Ethic in American Society, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L., and Brady, H. E. (1995). Voice and Equality: Civic Volunteerism in American Politics, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Yates, M., and Youniss, J. (1996). Community service and political-moral identity in adolescents. J. Res. Adolesc. 6: 271-284.
Youniss, J., and Yates, M. (1997). Community Service and Social Responsibility in Youth, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Youniss, J., McLellan, J. A., and Yates, M. (1997). What we know about generating civic identity. Am. Behav. Sci. 40: 620-631.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Youniss, J., Yates, M. Youth Service and Moral-Civic Identity: A Case for Everyday Morality. Educational Psychology Review 11, 361–376 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022009400250
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022009400250