ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on what is meant by civic engagement with respect to young people. To different observers, civic engagement can mean everything from attitudes or orientations and behaviors to participation in electoral politics or explicitly non-political voluntary groups. Then it focuses on three ways to think about civic engagement concept: The resource model of participation and political engagement, Civic engagement via voluntary associations and Engaged versus Dutiful Citizenship and Actualizing versus Dutiful Citizens. Then it also focuses on subset of young people aged 18 to 25 years who are in middle of their transition to adulthood. People who are undergoing transition to adulthood are of legal voting age and have left nest, but they are also characterized by economic dependence on the family. This pre-adulthood phase continues to increase in length because of structural, economic, and social reasons. Its members include young people in college, and those living separately who receive monetary or other life support, from their parents.
