Teens Aren’t as Disengaged as You May Think: What Adults Get Wrong About Adolescents’ Civic Contributions

Teens Aren’t as Disengaged as You May Think: What Adults Get Wrong About Adolescents’ Civic Contributions

By Kimia Shirzad, Penn State and Jen Agans, Penn State A teenager scrolls through their phone at the dinner table, barely looks up and answers questions with one-word replies. For many adults, that image has come to stand for a larger fear: that today’s young people are disconnected from others and may be uninterested in the world around them. Concerns about declining civic participation often deepen that worry. As researchers who study adolesc…