Abstract
Citizen participation is an important element of local
democracy because it increases residents’ influence over
local community issues. Using a sample of 494 Israeli
participants, this paper examines, for the first time, the
unique and combined contribution of personal factors (self‐
esteem and mastery) and community factors (years of
activity, knowledge of local services, trust in leaders,
community commitment, and community belonging) to the
explanation of the variance in each of two types of
community engagement: development and planning, and
activism and advocacy. Data analysis included hierarchical
regression that examined all variables and possible interactions among them. The results indicate that mastery and the
community variables, except for years of activity, predict
both types of engagement. Interestingly, knowledge of
services negatively predicts both, while trust in leaders also
predicts both types of engagement, but in opposite directions. In conclusion, the paper considers how these findings
might inform community work interventions.
democracy because it increases residents’ influence over
local community issues. Using a sample of 494 Israeli
participants, this paper examines, for the first time, the
unique and combined contribution of personal factors (self‐
esteem and mastery) and community factors (years of
activity, knowledge of local services, trust in leaders,
community commitment, and community belonging) to the
explanation of the variance in each of two types of
community engagement: development and planning, and
activism and advocacy. Data analysis included hierarchical
regression that examined all variables and possible interactions among them. The results indicate that mastery and the
community variables, except for years of activity, predict
both types of engagement. Interestingly, knowledge of
services negatively predicts both, while trust in leaders also
predicts both types of engagement, but in opposite directions. In conclusion, the paper considers how these findings
might inform community work interventions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1645-1665 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Journal of Community Psychology |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| Early online date | 3 Jul 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 19 Aug 2019 |
Bibliographical note
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.Keywords
- community, engagement, participation, civil society
