Applied Developmental Science

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Organized civic and non-civic activities aspredictors of academic GPA in high school
students
Frederick L. Philippe, Marie-Pier Gingras, Nessa Ghassemi-Bakhtiari,
François Poulin, Jean Robitaille, Anne-Sophie Denault, Stéphane Dandeneau& Marie-Claude Geoffroy
To cite this article: Frederick L. Philippe, Marie-Pier Gingras, Nessa Ghassemi-Bakhtiari,
François Poulin, Jean Robitaille, Anne-Sophie Denault, Stéphane Dandeneau & MarieClaude Geoffroy (2023) Organized civic and non-civic activities as predictors of academic
GPA in high school students, Applied Developmental Science, 27:2, 189-204, DOI:
10.1080/10888691.2022.2053127
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2022.2053127

Published online: 05 May 2022.

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APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE
2023, VOL. 27, NO. 2, 189–204
https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2022.2053127

Organized civic and non-civic activities as predictors of academic GPA inhigh school students
Frederick L. Philippea , Marie-Pier Gingrasa, Nessa Ghassemi-Bakhtiaria, François Poulina, Jean Robitailleb,
Anne-Sophie Denaultc , Stephane Dandeneaua, and Marie-Claude GeoffroydaUniversity of Quebec at Montreal; bAlliance pour l’engagement jeunesse; cLaval University; dMcGill University
ABSTRACT

Unlike organized activities such as sports and arts, civic activities in adolescence (e.g., volunteering, student government) have been less studied in relation to school success andalmost all existing evidence consists of cross-sectional findings. In a longitudinal study, 1035
pupils (64% females, 20% nonwhite, Mage ¼ 14.21 years) from high schools reported their
engagement in organized non-civic and civic activities during the school year, dimensionsof activity participation (e.g., intensity, duration, motives), and covariables (age, gender, ethnicity, SES, self-esteem, parental relationship, school motivation). Previous and end-of-year
grade point average (GPA) were collected from school administrations. Results revealed thatboth civic and non-civic organized activities independently predicted increases in GPA overthe school year, even after adjusting for all covariables.

Organized activities in adolescence, like sports andarts, have often been associated with positive youth
outcomes, such as school success (e.g., Denault &Poulin, 2009; Fredricks & Eccles, 2006). However,civic activities, like volunteering, serving on student
government, or ecological committees, have been lessstudied in relation to school success. In fact, moststudies available on civic activities consist of cross-sectional findings, with only a few exceptions. Moreproblematic, the effect of civic activities is often notdistinguished from other organized non-civic activities(e.g., Fredricks & Eccles, 2010) or organized non-civic
activities are not taken into account (e.g., Davila &Mora, 2007; Schmidt et al., 2012). Since researchers
can hardly use experimental designs with random
assignment of adolescents to civic and non-civic activities, this is a serious flaw—one that has made it
impossible to determine whether civic activities or
non-civic activities, or both independently, contributeto school success. Indeed, adolescents who engage in
non-civic activities, like sports and arts, and adolescents who perform well at school, may be more likely
to engage in civic activities (Besser, 2012; Fredricks &Eccles, 2010), thereby creating a clear self-selection
bias. The present research sought to investigate theseissues and improve on the limitations of past studies
by examining prospectively how engagement in civic
and other non-civic activities can independently predict increases in school success over time. Moreover,
we examined whether these effects were affected bydimensions of activities, (intensity, duration, the presence of an adult or not to structure the activity, or
youth’s motives to engage in the activity) and youth’s
characteristics (i.e., gender, age, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic backgrounds).

On organized activities
Organized activities during adolescence are conceptualized as taking place either at school as extracurricular activities or in the community. They arecharacterized by a regular or frequent engagement
over a significant period of time (at least several weeks
or months) and are delimited by specific rules andstructure—often guided by the presence of an adult—
and an emphasis on knowledge- or skill-building(Larson, 1999; Mahoney & Stattin, 2000). Typically,
these organized activities revolve around sports andphysical activities, such as swimming, hockey, or basketball, and cultural and artistic activities, such as

CONTACT Frederick L. Philippe
philippe.frederick@uqam.ca
Department of Psychology, University of Quebec at Montreal, PO Box 8888, Station
Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada.
Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2022.2053127.
ß 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

painting, theater, or dance. Several studies have shownthat participation in organized activities during adolescence is associated with positive educational outcomes (Fredricks & Eccles, 2006; Mahoney et al.,2003) and lower rates of internalizing and externalizing problems (Agans et al., 2014; Metzger
et al., 2011).

On civic activities
Civic engagement reflects individual or collective
actions undertaken with the aim to improve others’
conditions and the future of one’s community (Adler& Goggin, 2005). Civic activities can pertain tothemes related to democracy (e.g., defense of humanrights, of minorities), ecology (e.g., protection of theenvironment, green committee), solidarity (e.g., helping others in need, volunteering), or pacifism (e.g.,
world peace, fighting against bullying). Developing
civic engagement in youth has more than ever been afocus of many governments across nations (e.g.,
Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport,
Office for Civil Society, 2019; Evans et al., 2019;
Levine & Kawashima-Ginsberg, 2017). This trend is
supported by empirical research. Overall, past studies
have shown that youth might benefit tremendously
from participating in civic activities. Participation inthese types of activities has been associated with better
psychological health indicators, such as fewer depressive symptoms (Albanesi et al., 2007), higher selfesteem (Yates & Youniss, 1996), and fewer at-risk
behaviors, such as tobacco use and alcohol and drug
use and misuse (Ludden, 2011). Engagement in civic
activities during adolescence has also been positively
associated with prosocial attitudes (e.g., cooperation,
tolerance, and openness to others, Chan et al., 2014)
and with greater engagement in adulthood (Finlay &Flanagan, 2013), producing citizens more involved intheir community (Balsano, 2005; Flanagan & Levine,
2010; Gaventa & Barrett, 2012). It has also beenargued that civic activities are associated with perseverance and school success (Astin & Sax, 1998;
Lundy, 2007; Schmidt et al., 2007). However, most of
the empirical data existing to this effect has beencross-sectional, making it hard to determine 1)
whether highly adjusted or high-performing adolescents are more likely to engage in civic activities or 2)
whether civic activities per se are more likely to facilitate school success. If the first scenario is true, thepromotion of civic activities would not produce any
beneficial effect on school success, whereas in thesecond case scenario, providing adolescents with agreater number of opportunities to engage civically at
school could become a useful tool to facilitate theirschool success. Therefore, the direction of this relationship is of critical importance.
Several longitudinal studies have examined theeffect of participating in different organized activities(cultural, sports, volunteering) on school success, but
without differentiating the impact of civic activities
from other non-civic activities (for a review, see
Feldman & Matjasko, 2012). For instance, in one of
the first longitudinal studies on organized activities,
Eccles and Barber (1999) differentiated sports, arts,and certain specific kinds of civic activities and investigated their association with school grade point average (GPA). However, they did not compare against
each other which of these activities were the most predictive of GPA and they had no direct baseline measure of GPA (although they controlled for verbal andmath ability). More recently, Schmidt et al. (2012)used a large and demographically diverse sample ofadolescents and showed, using propensity matchingscores, that service participation was associated with
GPA. However, they did not control for a baseline
GPA or participation in other non-civic activities.
Fredricks and Eccles (2010) showed that the extent towhich adolescents engaged in a variety of organizedactivities (i.e., breadth of activity participation) in
Grade 11 predicted increases in GPA over time (GPAin 11th grade while controlling for GPA in 8th grade).
However, they did not measure activity participation
at baseline (i.e., 8th grade), did not distinguish civic
from non-civic activities, and used self-reported GPA.
Other studies have used objective markers of school
success, like obtaining a college degree, and showedthat it was positively associated with civic engagementin adulthood as an outcome (Nover et al., 2010).
However, this does not imply that the other directionof the relationship also holds (i.e., that civic engagement facilitates obtaining a college degree). Finally,some studies have confounded civic activities, such asserving on a student government, with civic actions,such as recycling or reading newspapers (e.g., Chanet al., 2014). It is unclear from the literature whether
civic actions can provide the same benefits ascivic activities.
Although the above studies all provide evidence
that participation in civic activities is associated witheducational success, the direction of the relationshipremains unclear. To our knowledge, the only study
that has examined the longitudinal association
between participation in civic activities (not measured
in an amalgam with other organized activities) andAPPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

changes in school GPA is the one of Davila and Mora(2007). This study showed that engaging in a student
government in high school and in community services(voluntary or within an academic cursus) predicted
increases in school GPA in various subjects (controlling for baseline), high school diploma earned four
years later, and acquiring a college degree. However,participation in other non-civic activities, such as
sports or artistic activities, was not controlled for andtherefore, the unique effect of civic activities could not
be isolated from other organized activities. Moreover,it was unclear in that study whether the effect camefrom freely-chosen civic activities or required community services (but see Schmidt et al., 2007).
Other shortcomings have plagued most past studies
on civic activities. Most lacked many important controls,
such as youth’s family socioeconomic status (e.g.,parents’ level of education) or students’ level of psychological, social, or school adjustment, as indicated by students’ self-esteem, relationship quality with parents orfriends, or motivation at school. These controls areimportant because several factors have been identified toaffect activity participation. For example, adolescents
who choose to participate in extracurricular activities
tend to be of higher socioeconomic status, are more
likely to be European American, have higher grades, andhave greater parental support than their peers (Brown &Evans, 2002; Feldman & Matjasko, 2005). Bohnert et al.
(2010) classify all predictors of self-selection in activity
participation in six categories, 1) demographics (age,gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity), 2) individual (e.g., self-esteem, motivation for school), 3) peer(e.g., peers in the activity), 4) family (e.g., relationshipquality with parents), 5) school (e.g., size, deprivationindex), and 6) neighborhood (e.g., availability of opportunities of engagement). It is important to control forindicators of these categories in longitudinal studies toavoid confounds of self-selection.
Finally, there is an important literature on the characteristics of youth engaging versus not engaging in civic
activities (e.g., Schmidt et al., 2012). However, studies
have rarely assessed the usefulness of civic activities foradolescents with or without certain characteristics(Dotterer et al., 2007, but see Schmidt et al., 2012 orFredricks & Eccles, 2010). Gender is one such criticalfactor. Adolescent males have been reported to engage
less in civic activities than females (Schmidt et al., 2012).
However, it is not clear whether the effect of civic activities is the same for male and female adolescents. Race/ethnicity may also play a role in how civic activities areengaged in or beneficial (Fredricks & Eccles, 2010). The
inherent cultural engagement of students with an

191

immigration background and their commitment toembrace and adopt the rights and values of a culture distinct from their cultural heritage are forms of civic engagement that are unique to them (Jensen, 2008; Lopez &Marcelo, 2008). Racialized students may feel marginalized
and oppressed by racism or discrimination (Grollman,2012). Their participation in civic activities may engender
feelings of acceptance by highlighting their capacity tocontribute to society and manage and improve relevantsocial issues—like any other active member of their community (Watts & Flanagan, 2007). Pupils from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may have a lower access in theirneighborhood to community, political, and educational
resources than pupils from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (Besser, 2012; Flanagan & Levine, 2010). Becauseof this, they may have fewer opportunities to engage incivic activities (Frisco et al., 2004). However, civic engagement could be one way to alter their social environment
and transform institutional, educational, and community
practices that do not meet their needs (Ginwright &James, 2002). Yet, very little empirical evidence exists onthese issues because most studies have recruited samplesof white, middle class students (Chan et al., 2014). Studies
on various kinds of organized activities suggest, however,that the positive effect of activity participation is generalizable across subgroups of adolescents (Fredricks &Eccles, 2006a).
Another key issue for which there is very little
knowledge is the dimensions of civic activities that are
more likely to promote school success in adolescence.
Research has shown that organized activities that are
guided by an adult provide the necessary structure,rules, and framework to catalyze the impact of theactivities (Mahoney & Stattin, 2000). However, thisdimension has never been formally tested with civic
activities. Another dimension of activities is theengagement (Bohnert et al., 2010) or motivation withwhich the adolescents engage in the activities. Five
decades of research from self-determination theory(Ryan & Deci, 2017) has shown that activities that are
engaged in out of autonomous motivation—that is,
activities that are pleasurable, or engage in because
they correspond to one’s core values or personal
importance and goals—lead to better outcomes thanactivities that are engaged in for controlled reasons.
Controlled reasons include introjected feelings, suchas internal pressure to engage in the activity, feelingsof guilt or shame, or external pressure, such as to win
a certificate, a prize, or avoid punishments. Thus, civic
activities that are engaged in for autonomous reasonsrather than controlled reasons should be more likely
to promote school success.

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

Finally, social capital theory (Coleman, 1988) suggests that adolescents may engage in activities because
their friends also partake in these activities or in order
to meet new friends or people sharing similar values.
This extended social network may, in turn, provide
greater interpersonal and intellectual resources, which
would then facilitate school success (Eccles et al.,
2003; Greenberg et al., 1983; Mahoney et al., 2003).
Contrary to most non-civic activities, certain organized
civic activities can be occasional, such as taking part in a
climate demonstration, a fundraising campaign, a youth
convention, or a workshop on a civic theme. Are theseoccasional activities also useful in contributing to school
success or are only organized long-term activities?
Moreover, do civic actions, such as recycling or composting, also facilitate school success? There are no empirical
data pertaining to these questions. We propose that occasional activities can facilitate school success because eventhough they are short-term activities, they can provide
adolescents with new mental representations of the world.
These new representations complexify their understandingof the society they live in, thereby opening them up to
new perspectives onto the world and onto themselves andothers. This complexification of their cognitive structures(e.g., more capacity for abstraction) is likely to facilitate
their understanding of other topics and therefore provide
them with greater grades (Demetriou et al., 2020). Civic
actions, however, can be done automatically and areunlikely to promote this complexification of cognitive
structures. For instance, recycling or composting are often
done absentmindedly and mechanically or out of social
modeling (e.g., parents who recycle). These actions are
rarely accompanied by a reflection of the world and society when they are enacted. Therefore, contrary to occasional civic activities, simple civic actions are unlikely to
predict changes in GPA.

The present study
There were three purposes with the present study. First,
we sought to examine the longitudinal association
between participation in organized civic activities andincreases in GPA over a school year. The present study
was also designed to provide better controls for activity
self-selection than what has been achieved in past
research. Adolescents were therefore asked to report onother types of organized activities that they engaged in,to determine the specificity of civic activities withrespect to school success compared to other organized
non-civic activities. Based on past research on organized activities, it was hypothesized that both organized
civic and non-civic activities would independently

predict increases in GPA over the school year. We also
controlled for at least one key variable from each of thecategories of predictors of self-selection in activity participation identified by Bohnert et al. (2010): 1) demographics (age, gender, race/ethnicity), 2) individual(e.g., self-esteem, motivation for school), 3) peer (e.g.,peers in the activity), 4) family (e.g., relationship quality
with parents, socioeconomic status including parents’level of education and occupational prestige), and 5)
school (e.g., school characteristics like size and socioeconomic status).1 The choice of the specific control variables were based on the fact that they have been shown
to relate to either engagement in extracurricular activity(e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, relationship with parents, Brown & Evans, 2002; Feldman& Matjasko, 2005 ) or school success (school characteristics, age, motivation, self-esteem, Finn et al., 2005;
Scherrer & Preckel, 2019). Controlling for these variables therefore statistically adjusts models for certain
self-selection biases. As supplementary analyses, we also
examined whether occasional civic activities could predict further increases in GPA, even after accounting forparticipation in long-term organized civic activities. We
expected that occasional civic activities, but not civic
actions, would predict changes in GPA.
The second purpose of the present study was to investigate the dimensions of civic and other activities that would
predict increase in GPA. Following Bohnert et al. (2010)
again, five of these dimensions were assessed: activity duration, intensity, the presence of adults during the activity,
self-determined and social motives for engaging in theactivity. Based on past research on organized activities, wehypothesized that intensity and presence of an adult would
predict increases in GPA, but not duration. Based on selfdetermination theory, we expected that self-determined
motives for engaging in the activity (i.e., more autonomous motives and fewer controlled motives) would predict increases in GPA and that this would be a better
predictor than social motives.
A third purpose of the present study was to examine whether civic activities and other non-civic activities would equally facilitate school success fordifferent groups of youth, that is, boys and girls,
younger and older adolescents, whites and racialized
individuals, and youth from high and low
1

In the present research, we also included a six-item measure of the levelof community availability or opportunities for civic activity participation(e.g., “My school or my community does not offer civic activities”).
However, since we were not interested in the factors that contribute to
civic participation in the present research, but in the effect of civic
activity participation on school success, we did not use this measure. To
be sure, controlling for this measure in all analyses did not affectthe results.

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

socioeconomic backgrounds. As per past research onorganized activities, we expected that the results
would not be moderated by these factors, such thatthe effect of civic and other non-civic activities on
GPA would generalize across all types of youth.

MethodParticipants and procedure
Participating schools were from six different regionsof the Province of Quebec, Canada. More schools
were from the largest regional areas of the province interms of population (n ¼ 8) and fewer from mediumsize regions (n ¼ 4), for a total of 12 schools. This
selection of schools was not entirely randomized, as it
was based on their acceptance of participating in the
study and availability of school personnel to administer the questionnaire. Despite this nonrandom selection, the representativity of the schools was adequate.
There were nine public and three private schools.
Four of the public schools were from high SES areas
and five were from low SES areas (based on theQuebecgovernment’s
schooldeprivation
classification).
A priori power analysis revealed that to detect anincrease of R2 of 1% with an a ¼ .05 and a power of.80 in a multiple regression analysis that would
include 10 predictors, a sample size of n ¼ 787 was
required. A total of 1632 high school adolescents(1049 girls and 601 boys) from Secondary I to V
(Quebec school system, equivalent to Grade 7 toGrade 11) from the 12 different schools were recruited
to complete a survey during the academic year. The
sample had a mean age of 14.21 years (SD ¼ 1.45 year)
and ranged in age from 12 to 17. A total of 20% of
the adolescents identified themselves as minority(3.6% Arab, 6.3% Asian, 3.8% Latino, 4.3% African
Canadian , 1% as Indigenous Canadian , and 0.9% asother). Of the 1632 adolescents, 1035 granted us
access to their official school grades and these grades
have been successfully obtained from the school.2
Overall, 750 students had grades from both the previous and current year, allowing us to investigate thechanges in grades occurring over time. Students in
2

Preliminary analyses on the questionnaire responses revealed that youthsof parents who did not grant us access to their grades or that theirgrades could not be obtained from the school were less likely toparticipate in civic (16% vs. 20%, F[1, 1630] ¼ 3.45, p ¼ .06, g2 ¼ .002)
and non-civic activities (48% vs. 57%, F[1, 1630] ¼ 12.62, p < .001, g2 ¼
.008) and were from lower SES backgrounds (M ¼ .04, SD ¼ .93 vs. M ¼-.10, SD ¼ .90, F[1, 1630] ¼ 8.00, p ¼ .005, g2 ¼ .005) than youths fromwhom grades were obtained. Each of these differences were small andaccounted for less than 1% of the variance. There were no other
differences on all other study variables.

193

secondary I (Grade 7) did not have grades from theprevious year, because they were frequenting elementary school at that time.
School boards were first contacted to collaborate inthis study. Our research team randomly selected themfrom a list of all available high schools in [blinded forreview]. Other schools were added through networksof partner organizations. The study was presented toschool boards and participants as a study on adolescents’ activities with no specific focus on civic activities in order to avoid recruitment bias of schools orof participants. School boards were then invited to
identify one or more school personnel members willing to be in charge of explaining the study andadministering the questionnaire to their students.
School personnel members, mostly teachers, were thentrained to administer the informed consent and provide the appropriate instructions to the students. They
were also informed of the potential coercive influence
they might have as an authority figure on their students’ consent to take part in the study and how to
avoid it. A consent form was sent to parents, either
printed or online, asking for their authorization for
their child to participate in the study and permission
to access their child’s grades from the previous andcurrent years. Students for whom parental consent
had been obtained completed the questionnaire, eithera paper-pencil questionnaire in a classroom setting or
an online version in the school’s computer room.
Students who did not receive parental consent orrefused to participate in the study had equivalentmaterial to work on, which had been prepared by theteacher or school staff in charge of administering thequestionnaire. The questionnaires have all been completed during the year between December and Marchin 2017 or 2018 and according to the availability ofthe schools. Year-end grades from the previous andcurrent years were sent to our research team by theschool administration at the complete end of theschool year in June. This study protocol was approvedby the Research Ethics Board of University of Quebec
at Montreal.
Measures
All items (except when explicitly mentioned) were
responded to on a Likert scale ranging from 1 “Do
not agree at all” to 5 “Totally agree”.
Organized activities
Civic activities. Instructions were drawn from Denault
and Poulin (2009). Participants were first explained

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

that we were interested in the organized activities inwhich they participate. An organized activity wasdefined following Denault and Poulin (2009) as anactivity occurring in a clear structured context (i.e., arecurrent activity occurring on a determined period oftime with some kind of organized setting), outside ofclass hours, and with a regular frequency of participation (i.e., not an occasional activity or an activity spanning over just a few weeks). They were then explained
what a civic activity was, that is, an activity that revolved
around aspects of democracy (e.g., human rights
defense, minorities rights, activities against discrimination, fair elections), ecology (e.g., protecting the environment, ecosystem restoration), solidarity (e.g., helping
others in need, benevolence), or pacifism (e.g., on peacein the world, stopping war). Students indicated whether
they had participated or were participating in such anactivity during the current school year (fromSeptember) or whether they planned to participate insuch an activity before the end of the school year (i.e.,
until June) and to describe the most important one indetail (only one civic activity was described). The variable of civic participation was thus binary, indicating
whether the youth was participating or not in at least
one civic activity. Participants then indicated when that
activity would begin or had begun (since the beginningof the school year or before, or else since when) andwhether they would engage in this activity until the endof the year and, if not, the month when they planned tostop. They also reported the frequency (e.g., number oftimes per week or month) and the number of hours per
week or month they engaged in that activity.
From these data, the intensity of engagement over theschool years (number of hours of participation per week
multiplied by the number of weeks of participation) andthe duration in months (number of months since they
began the activity to when they will end) were calculated—two key dimensions of organized activity engagement (Bohnert et al., 2010). Finally, participants indicatedwhether there were adults present when they were taking
part in this activity and if yes, how many. While many
activities can be sponsored by an adult, these activities
may still occur without the presence of an adult. For
example, in many high schools, a student journal or agreen committee can be initially launched by an adult, but
pupils regularly meet during lunchtime or after school
and work toward some objective over months without thedirect presence of an adult.
Non-civic activities. Participants also indicatedwhether they were involved in other types of organized activities, other than civic activities, such as

sports and cultural or artistic activities and to describe
their most important activity in detail. The variable
for non-civic participation was therefore also binary,
indicating whether the youth was participating or not
in at least one non-civic activity. As with civic activities, they also responded to the same questions asabove with respect to the duration and intensity of
the activity and the presence of adults.
Reclassification. Two judges then read the descriptionsof the civic and non-civic activities and, if necessary,recategorized them as a function of whether they were
civic or not, organized activities or rather occasional
activities, or just civic actions. For instance, recycling orcomposting was not considered a civic activity because
it does not occur within an organized framework, eventhough it is recurrent. It is rather a civic action.
Similarly, playing hockey with friends in the street was
not considered a valid sports activity because it does notoccur within an organized setting. If an occasional activity, a civic action, or a playful activity was described
instead of an organized activity, the pupil was reassigned
as not taking part in a civic or non-civic activity (sports
or arts). Interrater reliability was high, K ¼ .90.
Discrepancies were resolved through discussion. Overall,such a reclassification might have introduced a small
amount of error if a pupil described an invalid activity,
but was participating in another valid one that was notdescribed. This is a limitation of the methodology weused to measure activity participation.
Motives to engage in the activities. Participants also
reported their motives to engage in their activity (civic
and non-civic separately). Based on self-determinationand social capital theory, two motivational aspects
were measured: their self-determined motives toengage in the activity and their socially driven
motives. Self-determined motivation was measured
with six items, including three items assessing autonomous motives to engage in the activity (i.e., intrinsic
motivation and integrated and identified regulation,e.g., “I do this activity because of the pleasure I feel
when I do it”) and three items assessing controlled
motives (i.e., introjected and external regulations e.g.,“I do this activity to obtain a reward like a certificate
or a prize or to garner up my resume”). An index ofself-determination was calculated by subtracting controlled motives from autonomous motives, as commonly done by self-determination researchers (e.g.,
Ryan & Deci, 2017; Sheldon et al., 2017).
Participants also indicated with two items whether
they were engaging in their activity because they

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

found people who shared the same interests as themselves or because they felt accepted and valued by theactivity group. Intercorrelations between these items
were r ¼ .57, p < .001 for civic activities and r ¼ .60,
p < .001 for sports/arts/other.
Occasional civic activities
Occasional activities are short (a few hours or a few
days), non-recurring activities during the school year.
Participants were provided with a list of 16 occasional
civic activities (e.g., taking part in a demonstration
like the global walk or the climate walk, participating
in a youth convention, launching a fundraising campaign). Given the occasional and often unanticipatednature of these types of activities, it was deemed difficult for pupils to foresee how many of these activities
they would engage in for the remaining of the school
year. Therefore, occasional civic activities were measured retrospectively. To obtain a measure that would
cover a greater time span, pupils were thus asked tocheck each of the activities in which they had taken
part in the last two years. The sum of these activities
was the measure of occasional civic activities. Given
the count nature of this variable and the potential
effect of outliers and floor effect, we examined both adichotomized binary form of this variable (participating in at least one activity or not), and a winsorized
form (þ 2 SD from the mean) with a maximum score
fixed to 9 (ranging from 0 to 9 activities).
School grades (GPA)
Grades from the previous and current years wereobtained for each pupil. Grades were provided by theschool administration directly to our research team.
Grade point average in percentage (possible range
from 0% to 100%, as per as per Quebec school system) was calculated for all school subjects evaluated.
Current civic actions
A total of 20 items derived from the CIRCLE Civic
and political health of the nation survey (Keeter et al.,2002) measuring various civic actions was used.
Students indicated on a scale ranging from 0(“Never”) to 4 (“5 times or more”) the frequency atwhich they did different actions during the last year,
such as discuss what is going on in the social or political spheres, recycle, compost, or give away goods orclothes to a charitable organization. A total score wascomputed by averaging all items. Alpha was .83 inthis study.

195

Control variables
Given the longitudinal design of the present study
that cannot ensure causality, it is possible that a third
variable explains the potential effect of engagement incivic activities on school grades. To reduce this possibility, the statistic models were adjusted to control forthe effect of other variables that could influenceschool grades over time.
Self-esteem. The 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale(Rosenberg, 1965) was used to control for self-esteem.
Alpha was .73.
School self-determined motivation. The 10-item version of the Academic Motivation scale (Vallerandet al., 1989) measuring the continuum of self-determined motivation for school, including intrinsic
motivation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation, and amotivation, was used
(e.g., “I go to school because I really like going toschool” [intrinsic motivation] or “I go to school tohave a better salary later on” [external regulation]).
An index of self-determined motivation (also called
relative autonomy index) was calculated by subtracting the controlled motivations from the autonomous
motivations (Ryan & Deci, 2017; Sheldon et al., 2017)using the recommended algorithm for this scale (e.g.,
Fortier et al., 1995): intrinsic2 þ identified1 þ(introjected-1 þ external-1)/2 þ amotivation-2.3
Relationship quality with parents. The quality ofrelationship with each parent was measured with six
items from the Network Relationships Inventory –Relationship Qualities version (Buhrmester & Furman,
2008). The relationship quality with the father and themother were measured separately. An index of thequality of the relationship with the parents was thencalculated by averaging the score for the relational
quality of both the mother and the father. Alphas
were .88 and .87 for the quality of the relationships
3

There is a recent debate in the self-determination theory literature as towhether use or not a relative autonomy index of motivation. Some
researchers have suggested to use instead each dimension separately(autonomous and controlled regulations) or to use more complex
analyses, such as bi-factor models, permitting to examine both the effectof each single regulation separately as well as a general factor accounting
for the quantity of motivation or global self-determination. The choice ofthe scoring method depends on the research questions and othermethodological concerns, such as sample size and design (e.g., Howard
et al., 2020). In this study, we considered a relative autonomy index as
the most parsimonious solution for both the motivation scale and the
motives to engage in an organized activity, given that these variables
were only used as control variables or were examined among otheractivity characteristics. For full transparency, however, we will provide theresults of the separate autonomy and controlled dimensions ofmotivation in the analyses.

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

Table 1. Distribution of end-of-year grades and demographics per category of activity participation.
Civic and non-civic
participation

Civic
participation only

Non-civic
participation only

No activity
participation

F(3, 1031)

g2

12.1%

7.7%

44.8%

35.4%

–

–

82.82 (6.39)a

81.26 (7.44)a80.82 (7.20)a

75.78 (7.99)b

33.14, p <.001.12

83.89 (6.22)a

81.68 (6.50)ab

80.34 (7.82)b

75.16 (8.97)c

51.97, p <.001.13

14.47a (1.42)
17%a
26%ab

14.34ab (1.52)
24%ab
34%a

14.01b (1.36)
37%bc
18%b

14.43a (1.44)
42%c
23%ab

7.28, p <.001
11.00, p < .001
4.22, p ¼ .006

.021
.031
.012

.38 (.84)a

.10 (.88)a.19 (.88)a.27 (.96)b

24.33, p <.001.065

Number ofyouths (%)
Previous year
grades (mean on
100% and SD)1
End-of-year grades(mean on 100%and SD)Age (mean and SD)
Gender (% males)
Ethnicity(% nonwhites)
SES (mean z scoreand SD)

Note. N ¼ 1035; SD ¼ Standard Deviation. Proportions or means that do not share a common subscript differ at p <.05 following a Bonferroni correction.
N ¼ 750.

1with the father and the mother, respectively, and .88
for the averaged index.

Results

Sociodemographic variables. Pupils’ age and gender,
and parents’ level of education and occupation (biological mother and father or person generally taking
care of the child and having this role) as reported by
the child were collected. Occupational status wascoded using Ganzeboom’s coding scheme based on
the ISCO-08 classification (Ganzeboom, 2010;
International Labour Organization, 2012). Raters’agreement was satisfactory (k ¼ .85, based on 25% of
the material). Mother’s and father’s level of education
was correlated at r ¼ .46 and r ¼ .49 with mother’sand father’s occupational status, respectively, and wereaveraged into a single variable representing parents’SES (a ¼ .77).

Table 1 reports descriptive statistics among adolescents participating or not in civic and non-civic activities. Results showed that only 19.8 % of students
reported participating in an organized civic activity
during the academic year. Comparatively, 56.9% of
students reported participating in an organized sport,
cultural, or artistic activity. There were significant differences in end-of-year GPA among youth participating in both civic and non-civic organized activities orcivic activities only compared to those participating in
non-civic activities only or with no activity participation. Youth participating in non-civic activities only
also had better grades than those with no activity participation. For previous year GPA, youth participating
in both types of activity or in at least one type ofactivity did not differ against each other, but all had
significantly better grades than youth not participating
in any activity. There were also smaller differences onage, gender, and ethnicity, such that adolescents who
engaged only in non-civic activities were slightly
younger and white, and male adolescents tended toengage more in non-civic activities or had no activity
participation compared to females. A larger difference
was found on SES, such that adolescents from low
SES backgrounds were the most likely to report noactivity participation.

Statistical analyses
All analyses were adjusted for variance among schools
from which the participants were recruited. Following
recommendations from McNeish and Stapleton (2016)
when the number of clusters is small (< 20), a totalof k  1 dummy-coded variables representing therecruited schools were added to Step 1 of each hierarchical multiple regression analysis to account for thenesting nature of the data (similar to the control provided by multilevel analyses). In each hierarchicalregression analysis, control variables were entered in
Step 1 and the tested variables of interest were enteredin a second step to investigate their added explained
variance. When changes in GPA were examined, endof-year GPA was used as dependent variable, while
previous year GPA was controlled for at Step 1.
Results representing change in GPA therefore correspond to a residualized change score.

Preliminary analyses

Main regression analyses
Correlational statistics among study variables are presented in the supplementary file (see Table S1). To
examine the relation between participation in civic
activities and academic success, a multiple regression
analysis was conducted using end-of-year grades as

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

197

Table 2. Associations between organized civic and non-civic activities and end of the year GPA.
End of the year GPA (N ¼ 1034)
Steps

Independent variables

Step 1

Previous year GPA
Age
Sex (F ¼ 0; M ¼ 1)
Ethnicity (0 ¼ White)
Family SES
Self-esteem
School motivation
Parents’ relationship

Step 2

Civic activities
Non-civic activities

Note. p < .05, p <.01.

B (SE)b––0.42 (.18)
070
4.03 (.47)
.23
0.06 (.62)
.003
2.37 (.27).26
1.73 (.35).14
0.44 (.06).20
0.46 (.31).0412Step R ¼ .363
2.76 (.57).13
2.37 (.46).142Change R ¼ .031

the dependent variable. The independent variables
were sociodemographic and control variables, whichwere all entered in the first step of the regression. In
Step 2, participation in civic and non-civic activities
were entered. Results shown in Table 2 indicated that
civic activities as well as non-civic activities were both
positively and significantly associated with academic
grades, independently from one another. This result
was obtained after controlling for sociodemographic
variables, as well as self-esteem, academic motivation,and quality of parental relationships.
The same regression analysis was conducted, thistime controlling for the effect of GPA from the previous year. This allowed for the examination of the direction of the effect of youth’s activities on theiracademic grades. The results also shown in Table 3
indicated that participation in an organized civic
activity predicted increases in academic grades during
the year, independently of non-civic activities andcontrol variables. Participation in non-civic activities
also independently predicted grade increases.
Participation in civic and non-civic activities each predicted 0.5% of variance in increase in academic grades
over one year, F(1, 729) ¼ 4.12, p <.05 and F(1, 729)
¼ 4.67, p <.05, respectively, corresponding to anincrease of 0.77 and 0.67 per year in grades for adolescents participating in a civic and a non-civic activity, respectively. We also examined the interaction
between practicing an organized civic and a non-civic
activity. The interaction was not significant, t(729) ¼
1.69, p ¼ .091, thus, it seems best to describe theeffect of civic and non-civic activities as two independent and additive effects.
Given that we were not granted access to thegrades of a certain number of pupils and that pupils
in Secondary I did not have previous-year GPA, we
imputed their values for the full sample using multiple
imputation (datasets ¼ 50). Results of the above
regressions remained the same (see Table S2).

Increases in GPA (N ¼ 750)t(1013)–
2.33
8.51
.089
8.88
5.02
7.19
1.46
4.85
5.20

B (SE).85 (.022)
0.40 (.14)
1.73 (.32)
.058 (.39)
0.61 (.19)
0.37 (.23)
0.12 (.041)
0.63 (.20)
Step R2 ¼ .789
0.77 (.38)
0.67 (.31)
Change R2 ¼ .01bt(728)

.82
.060
.10
.003
.068
.032
.058
.059

38.12
2.84
5.37
.148
3.27
1.64
3.04
3.08

.037
.040

2.03
2.16

Youth characteristics
The same regression was conducted again, this time
adding interaction terms between civic participationand youth’s gender, age, ethnicity, SES, and gradesfrom the previous year. To gain greater power, theseinteractions were examined separately, but each
included two interaction terms, one with civic participation and a moderator and another with non-civic
participation with that same moderator. All interactions were non-significant, indicating that both civic
and non-civic participation were equally effective atincreasing grades in all youth, regardless of youth’s
investigated characteristics and backgrounds.
Analyses of activity dimensions
To examine whether dimensions of organized civic
activities (e.g., intensity, duration, presence of an
adult, motives) would predict increases in grades over
the year, only data from pupils who participated in an
organized civic activity during the year (n ¼ 199 withcurrent year grades and n ¼ 146 with grades fromboth the previous and current years) were analyzed.
Similar regression analyses to the main ones presented
above were conducted, this time controlling for participation in non-civic activities at Step 1 and including all the civic activity dimensions at Step 2. Results(see Table 3) showed that intensity and duration were
not significant predictors of current grades or changes
in grades. However, the presence of at least one adultduring the activity was a significant predictor of current grades, b ¼ .34, t(174) ¼ 2.59, p ¼ .010, and ofgrade increases over the school year. Self-determined
motives were also a significant predictor of theincrease in academic grades during the year.
Surprisingly, social motives negatively predictedchanges in grades. We further probed this unexpected
result by examining social motives alone, without

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

Table 3. Civic and non-civic activity dimensions predicting increases in GPA.
Civic activity dimensions predicting increases in GPA
N ¼ 146
Steps
Step 1

Step 2

Independent
variables
Same control
variables
shown in
Step 1 inTable 2 R2Intensity
Duration
Adult presenceSocial motives
Selfdetermined
motives2
R change

B (SE)bt(121)B (SE)

R ¼ .83, F(19, 127) ¼ 34.69

.031
.023
.19
.13
.14

b

t(378)

R ¼ .80, F(19, 383) ¼ 84.98

2.003 (.004).009 (.016)
2.57 (1.16)
.76 (.25).78 (.25)

Non-civic activity dimensions predicting increases in GPA
N ¼ 403
2

.76
.49
2.23
3.09
3.18

R2 ¼ .024, F(5, 121) ¼ 4.02, p ¼ .002

.001 (.001).001 (.006)
.34 (.53)
.30 (.16).11 (.19)

.026
.001
.015
.046
.015

1.07
0.05
0.64
1.89
0.59

R2 ¼ .003, F(5, 378) ¼ 1.06, p ¼ .38

Note. Model at Step 1 was adjusted for all control variables shown in Table 2, including GPA from previous year.
p < .05, p <.01.

including the other activity dimensions to ensure that
this negative association was not due to a distortion
effect. The negative and significant association ofsocial motives was maintained, even after excluding
other activity dimensions. Overall, presence of an
adult predicted an increase of 2.5% in grades over theyear, F(1, 122) ¼ 4.94, p ¼ .028 and self-determined
motives a further increase of 3.4% in grades, F(1, 121)
¼ 7.10, p ¼ .009.
The same regressions were conducted to examine
non-civic activity dimensions, controlling for participation in civic activities (n ¼ 569 with current year
grades and n ¼ 403 with grades from both the previous and current year). Results showed that duration,b ¼ .070, t(543) ¼ 2.04, p ¼ .042, and self-determined
motives, b ¼ .074, t(543) ¼ 2.08, p ¼ .038, were positively associated with current year grades. However,no dimensions predicted increases in grades over
the year.4
Participation in occasional civic activities
The association between participation in occasional
civic activities (binary and winsorized) and grades was
examined. A total of 87.2% of students reported having engaged in at least one occasional organized civic
activity in the last two years. The same main regression was conducted again (controlling for previous
year GPA), this time adding participation in4

We analyzed the data again using separate autonomous and controlled
measures. For motivation at school, controlling for these two constructs
did not change any of the result. For the autonomous and controlled
motives for the civic activity, results showed that there was a small
positive significant effect of autonomous motives (t ¼ 2.84, p ¼ .005) anda small negative marginally significant effect for controlled motives (t ¼-1.75, p ¼ .083) on residualized changes in grades. Therefore, it seems
more appropriate and powerful to combine these effects in a relativeautonomy index (t ¼ 3.18, p ¼ .002).

occasional civic activities (binary form) to the equation in the last step. Results showed that participationin an occasional civic activity predicted a supplemental increase in GPA, B ¼ 1.00, SE ¼ .46, b ¼ .078,
t(729) ¼ 2.17, p ¼ .031, accounting for 0.5% of thevariance of GPA increases over the year, over andabove participation in organized activities (civic andnon-civic activities). The same regression was conducted again with the winsorized form of the variable(0 to 9 activities), but it was unrelated to residualizedchanges in grades t(729) ¼ 0.67, p ¼ .50. Thus,
although the winsorized form was more strongly associated with grades than the binary one (see Table S1),change in grades was best predicted by engaging in atleast one activity vs. no activity.
Civic activities or civic actions?
In order to establish whether it was the practice of a
civic activity or the practice of civic actions (e.g., recycling, composting) that was related to GPA, the same
main regression analysis (including all control variables) was performed while controlling for the frequency of civic actions. The results indicated that
civic actions were not related to GPA. This was true
even when participation in organized civic or noncivic activities were omitted from the equation, b ¼
.033, t(735) ¼ 1.78.5 Moreover, controlling for
civic actions did not change the statistical significanceof participation in civic or non-civic activities on GPA(ps < .05).
5

An alternative explanation would be that civic actions are undertaken
within the framework of the organized civic activities (or as aconsequence of them). If that was the case, there would be an
association between civic actions and grades when excluding the variableaccounting for participation in civic activities. But this was not the case.

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

Discussion
The purpose of the present research was to examine
the prospective effect of youth’s participation in civic
activities, compared to non-civic activities, on school
GPA. Moreover, the present research sought to investigate multiple dimensions of activity participation.
Since research on activity participation in youth isalmost always affected by self-selection bias, the present study controlled for several confounding variables
by recruiting pupils from a diversity of schools and bycontrolling for key variables. The current study also
investigated whether the effect of civic activity participation would be the same for youth with different
characteristics.
Overall, results showed that participation in both
civic and non-civic activities independently predicted
increases in GPA over the school year. Moreover, thiseffect was not moderated by gender, age, ethnicity, or
SES. This independence of civic and non-civic activities in predicting increases in GPA is in line withpast research that has shown that activity breadth (ofall sort) is linked to school success (Bohnert et al.,2010; Denault & Poulin, 2009). This is the first study
to our knowledge to highlight that civic activity participation can predict changes in GPA over time whileaccounting for the effect of other non-civic activities.
Moreover, this is one of the few studies to control foras many potential confounding variables at thesame time.
The effect of organized activities may seem small as
they only accounted for 1% of changes in GPA over
the year (1.44% increase to be more precise).
However, the model tested was very stringent with allits control variables. Thus, civic and non-civic activities are likely to have already affected some of thecontrol variables at the time of the study, such as
school motivation or self-esteem and these variables
may then act as partial mediators of the relationshipbetween activity participation and increases in GPA.
Furthermore, activity participation is likely to haveinfluenced previous years grades and controlling forthese canceled out this effect. Moreover, this 1%
increase represents the amount of grade increases per
one year. It is unknown if this effect is linear, stable,
and cumulative over years. However, if it is the case,this could represent an important difference in grades
over the full high school period. Finally, this 1%
increase is the average increase for all youth. The current findings showed that activity dimensions are key
variables to consider. Of importance, civic activities
that are actively supervised by an adult and thoseengaged in out of self-determined motives are more

199

likely to facilitate grade increases. This is consistent
with findings that showed that organized activities
that include adult’s supervision have better structures
and are therefore more beneficial to youth (Denault &Poulin, 2009; Larson, 1999). Results of the present
study showed that together these two dimensions ofcivic activity can represent a further increase of 5.8%
in grades among youth participating in organized civic
activities.
There were also surprising results regarding activity
dimensions and motives. First, intensity of both civic
and non-civic activities was not associated with gradesand did not predict change in grades. Past studies had
highlighted that youth who spend more time in activities are more likely to be exposed to factors promoting positive development (Gardner et al. 2008).
However, most studies investigating activity intensity
have often assessed it by combining the intensity ofmultiple activities (e.g., Denault & Poulin, 2009). In
the present research, the intensity of only one activity
was examined, which might have reduced its predictive power. Civic activity duration was not associatedwith grades, but non-civic activity duration was,which replicates past research (e.g., Darling, 2005). A
second surprising result was the lack of relationshipbetween adult presence in non-civic activities andgrades. Adult supervision is often part of the definition of organized activities (Larson, 1999). However,
adult presence has rarely been formally tested, especially as a function of activity type. In the present
research, we investigate this dimension by considering
activities that may not include the presence of an
adult during activity engagement. This dimension
clearly showed to be important for civic activities, but
result was not significant for non-civic activities.
However, closer examination of the proportion ofyouth engaging in non-civic activities without thepresence of an adult showed to be very small (11.2%)
as compared to those engaging in a civic activity without adult supervision (39.9%). This lack of variability
in non-civic activities could explain the null result
obtained. Finally, a third surprising result is the negative association between social motives and grades. It
is important to note that we did not measure thenumber of friends partaking to the activity or thequality of the relationship with these friends, whichhave been shown to be associated with better academic functioning (e.g., Poulin & Denault, 2013).
Rather, we evaluated youth’s motives to join an activity with items tapping into feeling accepted by thegroup or meeting people with similar interests. These
items might actually reflect a social-deficit orientation,

200

F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

with youth endorsing them perhaps because they do
not feel accepted in other groups or do not find kinship elsewhere. Pupils who show such an orientation
might have lower academic functioning, which would
explain the negative association between our measureof social motives and grades.
What are the mechanisms implicated?
One lingering question, however, is why these organized activities are associated with such positive effects
on grades. Traditional responses to this question havebeen that 1) more time spent in structured activities
often means less time in problematic ones (Mahoney& Stattin, 2000), 2) that engagement in organizedactivities is an opportunity to develop effort and persistence (Eccles & Barber, 1999), 3) which can thenfacilitate identity development (Mahoney et al., 2006),
or 4) that these activities can provide youth with asupportive adult (Fredricks & Eccles, 2005) or peergroup (Bohnert et al., 2007). The present findings
partly support these explanations. While the presenceof a peer group (herein social motives) in civic activities did not positively contribute to academic success,the presence of an adult during these activities significantly predicted increases in grades over time. Bothcivic and non-civic organized activities predictedchanges in grades and the duration of non-civic activities was significantly associated with current grades,suggesting that effort and persistence as displayed in along-term engagement in organized activities may
facilitate school success. Moreover, self-determined
motives to engage in civic and non-civic activities
were shown to significantly predict GPA increases,
pointing out that activities that are engaged in out of
an intrinsic or self-determined fashion may serve tobuild one’s identity and self in a more coherent andintegrated manner (Mahoney et al., 2006). However,occasional civic activities were also associated withgrades and predicted changes in grades over time.
These activities do not represent an effort displayedover a considerable amount of time and therefore
depart from a perseverance explanation. Moreover,they do not necessarily involve the presence of an
adult, although many of them are at least typicallysponsored by one. Finally, occasional activities may
allow youth to spend more time in adequate activities
and less in unstructured or problematic ones, which
does not refute the explanation of reduced delinquency (Mahoney & Stattin, 2000).
We would like, however, to provide a different
explanation as to why civic activities may be

specifically useful to youth. We believe that civic
activities may help forge new mental representations
about the world and the self, which complexify
youth’s cognitive resources and provide them with agreater diversity of ways of integrating and understanding school subjects. Civic activities that allow
one to learn more about political conflicts or specificpopulations (e.g., the elderly, migrants, or people
without homes) facilitate a world vision that is morenuanced, diminish stereotypes, stimulate a greater
openness toward divergent points of view, andencourage greater tolerance of the differences(Wagner & Mathison, 2015). Such more flexible mental representations are likely to facilitate school learning (Bowman, 2011). This may explain why occasional
civic activities also predicted grade increases, evenover and above participation in organized civic andnon-civic activities. In most non-civic activities, youth
may need a frequent exposure to an activity context
to withdraw positive developmental outcomes fromtheir activity participation (Hansen & Larson, 2007;
Larson & Verma, 1999). However, given the potentially greater cognitive skills provided by civic activities, even occasional or one-time event might beenough to procure novel mental representations of theworld and forge new mental complexities and thinking styles. This is also supported by the fact that civic
actions were not associated with grades. Civic actions,such as recycling, composting, or turning off the lights
to preserve energy, may be done automatically andthe frequency at which these actions are done does
not appear as a valid marker of a cognitive change
afforded by new civic knowledge. Obviously, more
research is needed to ascertain this alternative
explanation.
Implications
The present research has important implications foreducational settings. The present findings suggest thatthe addition of civic activity as extracurricular activities or as community activities to youth’s schedule
could help them develop greater cognitive skills, sustain their engagement at school, and increase theirgrades. It therefore appears mandatory to increase theoffer of civic activities at school and provide greater
access to community organizations involved in civic
actions, such as ecology, social justice, and pacificism.
Partnerships between schools and such organizations
appear as a fruitful avenue to bolster school’s civic
activity opportunities with community organizations’expertise in this area. While organized civic activities

APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE

that are engaged in with a regular frequency of participation are effective at increasing youth’s grades,
even occasional activities appear to be useful to thisextent. This makes partnerships with community
organizations even easier, as long-term collaborations
are not always possible within school settings. The
programming of occasional activities at school asdelivered by community organizations could therefore
be a rapid and effective way to increase the offer ofcivic activities, without monopolizing too many
resources, which are often scarce in educational settings. However, the way these activities are presented
to youth matter. As shown in the present research,
the presence of an adult who ensures structure to theactivity appears mandatory. Moreover, certain practices may not be well-advised. For instance, schoolintervenient sometimes use rewards or certificates as
incentive to encourage pupils to engage in civic activities. However, such external rewards have long been
known to increase controlled motivation (Deci et al.,1999). The present research further showed that thistype of motivation can hinder the positive effect of
civic engagement on grades.

Limitations
The present research is limited in a number of ways.
First, the longitudinal design used allowed us todescribe the direction of the effect of organized activity on GPA, but still prevents us from speaking aboutcausality. While we controlled for several potential
confounders, there is still a possibility that an
unmeasured variable could account for the effect ofactivity participation on GPA. Experimental designs
with proper random assignment would be needed to
examine the causal effect of civic and non-civic participation. Second, the present sample was only partly
representative of the high school student populationin Quebec, Canada.. Sampling was not random andparticipating schools providing more organized activities to their pupils might have been more inclined toparticipate in our study. This might have biased thepresent results and, therefore, external validity is limited by this possibility. Third, only 20% of our sample
identified as a minority and there were too few pupils
in each ethnic group to perform statistical analyses foreach group. Furthermore, we did not investigate
whether these students were of first, second, or third
immigrant generation and this can be a significant
moderating effect (e.g., Camacho & Fuligni, 2015).
While we did not find any moderating effect of ethnicity in the current study, future research will be

201

needed to replicate the current findings within a morediversified sample in terms of ethnicity.

Conclusion
Overall, the present research provided evidence thatorganized civic activities and occasional civic activities
have a unique effect on academic success, one that is
independent of non-civic activities. Moreover, the present research ascertained this finding while controllingfor a host of potentially confounding variables andmoderators. Both the presence of an adult and selfdetermined motives appear to be key civic activity
dimensions. Finally, future research may do well ininvestigating the unique long-term effect that civic
activities may have in the cognitive development ofyouth as compared to other types of activities.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Francis Pare from Alliancepour l’engagement jeunesse for his close collaboration on
this research project and our community partners, Amnesty
International Canada francophone section, Oxfam-Quebec,
Monique-Fitz-Back Foundation, and Mouvement ACTES(Centrale des Syndicats du Quebec).

Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Consent to participate
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study and from their parents/tutors.

Ethics approval
This study was performed in line with the principles of the
Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics
Committee of the University of Quebec at Montreal.

Funding
This research was supported by a partnership grant fromthe Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada # 435-2018-0867.

ORCID
Frederick L. Philippe
6997-8072
Anne-Sophie Denault
0325-7472

http://orcid.org/0000-0001http://orcid.org/0000-0002-

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F. L. PHILIPPE ET AL.

Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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