The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of participation activities of youths on the sense of community and to analyze mediating effects of self-esteem and life satisfaction on the effect of participation activities on sense of community. ...
The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of participation activities of youths on the sense of community and to analyze mediating effects of self-esteem and life satisfaction on the effect of participation activities on sense of community. This study aimed to find an opportunity to seek ways to raise the sense of the community of youths. Additionally, This study aimed to provide useful information about policy and practical intervention for the youth participation in order to secure methods to enhance youth participation activities, self-esteem and life satisfaction.
In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the following three research questions were set as follows. [Research Question 1] Do youth participation activities affect the sense of community of the youths?
[Research Question 2] Do youth participation activities affect the sense of community of the youths through self-esteem? [Research Question 3] Do youth participation activities affect the sense of community of the youths through the life satisfaction?
For the analysis the data of 2017 Comprehensive Survey of Children in Seoul were utilized. Although the respondents were 8,694, the subjects of [Research Question 1] were 1,075, and those of [Research Question 2] and [Research Question 3] were 1,490 respectively. The dependent variable of this study was sense of community of youths and independent variable was youth participation activity such as student council activities, public organization participation activities, and social participation activities. The parameters were self-esteem and life satisfaction of youths, and demographic factors such as gender, age, household income, educational level of parents, relationship with parents, relationship with peers, and relationship with teachers were controlled.
In order to verify the research questions and hypotheses, STATA 15.0 was used to perform bivariate correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and structural equation model analysis. To explain in more details, multiple regression analysis was performed to verify [Research question 1] and Hypotheses 1-1, 1-2 and 1-3 to identify the effects of youth participation activities on the sense of community of youths. To verify [Research question 2], hypothesis 2-1, [Research question 3] and hypothesis 3-1, structural equation model analysis was performed, to identify the mediating effect of self-esteem and life satisfaction on the relationship between youth participation activities and sense of community.
When demographic factors were controlled, out of the youth participation activities, student council activity and social participation activity explained the sense of community of youths at a significant level in [Research question 1]. In [Research question 2], it was found that self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between youth participation activities and the sense of community of youths. In [Research question 3], it was also found that life satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between youth participation activities and the sense of community of youths.
The implications of this study are as follows. First, it was empirically verified that social participation activities have a significant impact on the sense of community not to mention of the student council activities whose effect was well-known. This implies that the importance of participation in the ‘community’as well as participation ‘in school’ in order to improve the sense of community of youths. This is meaningful in that it externally expanded the participation activities of youths. This can be used as a basic data for activating and diversifying youth participation activities to strengthen the sense of community in social welfare practice field. On the other hand, in the case of the public organization participation activities which did not give meaningful results, this was qualitatively different from student council activities and social participation activities that were supposed to be ‘voluntary’. It was a participatory organization that was led, forecasted, planned and organized by the supplier. This study focused on this point and urged the transformation of the paradigm of youth policy from ‘supplier-centered’ to ‘youth-led’. Second, in the analysis of this study, the mediating effect of self-esteem and life satisfaction on the relationship between participation activities and the sense of community of youths, which have been partially verified or have not been empirically verified, was proved. In particular, this study can be differentiated from existing studies in that it illuminated psychological and emotional variables. This study suggests that to understand the sense of community of youths a micro approach to the psychological elements of individuals should be considered as well as the social and relational elements which previous research had focused on. It also implies that it provides a basis for policy intervention at the level of central government, local governments, and community in order to grow and strengthen the self-esteem and life satisfaction of youths.