Prof. James Youniss

Service: Civic and Moral Development in Youth

Volunteer service is recognized as a social good, but many questions can be raised about its personal and social efficacy. Should a few volunteers do the work of the state or the community? How should service be judged: By its benefits for its recipients or the developmental gains of the donors? Is service a useful way to bring recipients and actors into a new form of positive relationship? Is service an effective means for engaging young people in civic or political life? If it is, under which conditions are the gains most evident? Many schools mandate service for their students: is required service as efficacious as self-initiated volunteerism? Should service be initiated by youth themselves or should it be arranged for youth?

I will address these and other issues in a review that is grounded in research findings and is framed in a developmental theory which views service as public resource which can introduce young people to organized collective action that is an essential building block of democratic citizenship. Although most of the research is based on studies from the USA, this perspective appears to apply to Western Europeans and be relevant for contemporary young people in any modern state. Not all of the above questions can be answered, but service is a valuable tool for thinking about what democratic citizenship means in the 21^st century and how we can encourage its development.

Zur Person

Born in 1936
Received his PH. D. in 1962
Married, 4 children

Werdegang

Prof. Youniss is currently a Research Professor in Psychology. Until 2010 he was the James & Wylma R. Curtin Professor of Psychology. He has been on the faculty of the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, since 1965.

A Research Award (Preisträger) from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (1992-1993)
A Senior Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (1995)
A Fellow at the Radcliffe Center for Advanced Studies, Harvard University (2001-02)

He is editorial board of several journals. e.g., Human Development, Journal of Adolescent Research. A book has been published in German about his earlier research:

James Youniss: Soziale Konstruktion und Psychische Entwicklung, Lothar Krappmann & Hans Oswald, Suhrkamp, 1994

Forschungsschwerpunkte

Recent and current work: Since spending 1992-93 in Germany, observing the unification process after the wall fell, he became interested in the task of becoming a democratic citizen. His colleagues and he have studied ways that community service-volunteering can set youth on a path toward civic engagement and identity as an active citizen within a democratic system. Not all service leads in the direction, but service with certain organizations can be beneficial in this respect when it involves doing work with explicit civic purpose.

He has been publishing research since 1960. He has published or edited 10 books. Those relevant to civic engagement are:

J. Youniss & M. Yates, 1997: Community Service and Social Responsibility in Youth, University of Chicago Press.
M. Yates & J. Youniss, 1999: Roots of Civic Identity, Cambridge University Press.
J. Youniss & P. Levine, 2009: Engaging Young People in Civic Life, Vanderbilt University Press.

He has published about 190 articles, chapters, and reviews. A couple of the more recent are:

J. Youniss & H. Reinders, 2010: Youth and Community Service: A review of U. S. Research, a Theoretical Perspective and Implications for Policy in Germany, Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, V13, p 233- 248.
J. Zaff, J. Youniss, & C. M. Gibson, 2009: An Inequitable Invitation to Citizenship, www.PhilanthropyActiveCivicEngagement.org
H. McIntosh & J. Youniss, 2010: Toward a Political Theory of Political Socialization of Youth, Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement of Youth, p. 23- 42. L. Sherrod, J. Torney-Purta, & C. Flanagan (eds.)
J. Youniss, 2009: When Morality Meets Politics In Development,Journal of Moral Education, V38, 129- 144.

James Youniss an der Catholic University of America, Washington