Civic-mindedness is more than personality: Untangling the overlapping constructs of service motivation, civic efficacy and the Big Five

Joseph Charles Van Matre*, Arjen de Wit, M. Huizinga, Rene Bekkers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

Many colleges and universities have embraced the goal of increasing students’ civic-mindedness. The research associated with theorizing and measuring civic-mindedness, however, has thus far progressed in a silo away from the established literature of personality psychology. This paper bridges this gap – adopting civic efficacy and service motivation as two measures of civic-mindedness – and examines how well they are explained by the five-factor model of personality (FFM). Using survey data from undergraduate students at a large, public research university, we estimated a structural equation model to measure personality traits from the FFM, service motivation, and civic efficacy. Results showed that variation in personality accounts for approximately 40% of the variation in Service Motivation and 53% of the variation in Civic Efficacy, which does not support a clear assertion that either construct can neatly be categorized as a facet of the FFM. Our findings provide an additional theoretical basis for community service learning courses and other educational opportunities that blend traditional pedagogical strategies with experiential and reflective opportunities aiming to produce change across state-like and trait-like attributes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)108-116
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Individual Differences
Volume45
Issue number2
Early online date22 Nov 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

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