Pre-College Factors Influencing College Students ’ Civic Attitudes : The Importance of Familial and Community Service Experiences

Entering university students (N = 178) were surveyed in the fall of 2013 to learn about their attitudes toward college and civic engagement. As with students beginning study at the same university five to seven years earlier, participants felt positive about the institution’s public service graduation requirement and indicated plans to engage in substantial service during college. Their civic attitudes were as or slightly more positive than those of students surveyed earlier, but they were less positive in their self-reported knowledge of the community. Students’ reports of family orientation toward community service predicted their views of the graduation requirement, as well as their civic attitudes (i.e., civic responsibility, value placed on community service, and social justice). Replicating earlier research, students’ pre-college community service, especially their reported enjoyment of service activities, predicted attitudes toward the graduation requirement and civic attitudes. A mediation model showed that the effects of family orientation on civic attitudes were partially mediated by students’ involvement in service during secondary school years. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for K-12 and college programming.

This study focused on the potential influence of students' pre-college experiences in the family and in the community on their civic attitudes upon entering college.The research followed up on a larger study of students at Tulane University conducted in 2006, 2007, and 2008, the years following Hurricane Katrina.An additional aim of the research was to determine if positive attitudes toward a public service graduation requirement-exhibited in the earlier groups-would be demonstrated in a new group of students beginning study at the university in the fall of 2013.
Although college admissions offices are well aware of the importance of students' pre-college experiences, service-learning programming is often based on the assumption that students enter college with minimally formed attitudes related to civic engagement.Our previous research has shown that students display a wide variation in their attitudes and competencies for civic engagement at college entry.For instance, Moely & Ilustre (2011) found that students' pre-college community service predicted their college choices, expectations, and civic attitudes when they entered the institution.The present research attempted to replicate and extend this finding, taking into account not only pre-college service experiences but also the possible impact of family attitudes toward civic engagement on the development of students' civic attitudes at college entry.
Important increases in cognitive skills during adolescence provide individuals with a strong basis for growth in and refinement of their conceptualizations of civic engagement, citizenship, and the role of the individual as citizen (Baxter-Magolda, 2001;McIntosh, Hart, & Youniss, 2007;Steinberg, 2005).These changes make it possible for influences from the family and the young person's broadening social environment to impact conceptual and emotional development.
Considerable research on human development has demonstrated the influence of family on children's attitudes and motivations (e.g., Berk, 2001Berk, , 2013)).Indeed, recent studies of youth civic development have identified important mechanisms through which families may influence young learners; in particular, parents may serve as models of attitudes and behaviors and share their conceptualizations of the world through discussion and debate.Andolina, Jenkins, Cliff, and Keeter (2003) conducted two studies in which telephone interviews were carried out with more than 4,000 individuals 15 to 25 years of age who represented the national population relative to gender, race, education, and region.The researchers found that young adults whose parents acted as role models for civic behavior were more likely to volunteer, follow politics, vote, participate in boycotts, and sign petitions.Political discussions with parents were important precursors of civic involvement.Verba, Schlozman, and Brady (1995) analyzed data from telephone surveys of more than 15,000 adults, following up with 2,500 personal interviews of some of the same individuals, and created a model of intergenerational transmission of civic attitudes and behaviors.According to this model, parents' educational attainment, knowledge of political matters, and discussion of political issues at home were important predictors of their adult children's voluntary political participation, which included voting, working on a campaign, making contributions to candidates, contacting local officials, protesting, or working with others in the community on local problems, either informally or through community organizations.Similarly, McIntosh et al. (2007), using data from the 1996 National Household Education Survey, found evidence for the importance of parent-child discussions in the development of civic competence.They conducted interviews with both parents and their adolescent children-with a total of 3,779 families participating.Discussion of politics with parents predicted adolescents' (i.e., Grades 9-12) self-reported monitoring of news, political knowledge, ability to communicate views orally or in writing, and community service.
Students' school experiences represent another important influence on adolescents' civic views and engagement.Andolina et al. (2003) found that young adults were more likely to volunteer if their high schools had arranged community service opportunities for them, especially if those activities involved open discussions and encouragement of independent thinking.The researchers also concluded that "families, schools, and other groups wishing to influence young adults long after they have left the home or graduated from school can lay the groundwork for later engagement by encouraging positive attitudes early on" (p.279).McIntosh et al. (2007) found that students' participation in organized activities at school was a significant predictor of their civic outcomes at in Grades 9 to 12. Youniss, McLellan, and Yates (1997) found consistency between young people's civic participation and involvement in organized activities, and their civic behaviors 15 or more years later.Amadeo, Torney-Purta, Lehmann, Husfeldt, and Nikolova (2002) emphasized the roles of both family and school-based experiences on civic knowledge of upper-secondary school students (ages 16-19 years) from 16 different countries (not including the United States).They found that democratic practices and civic activities in the classroom were important for students' civic education.Factors such as an open classroom climate for discussion and participation by students in school governance positively impacted students' civic knowledge (i.e., knowledge of democracy, citizenship concepts, social cohesion and diversity, and economic literacy).
Thus, both family and school appear to have notable impacts on the civic development of youth, although the research to date has not isolated all of the important features of the family or school setting that influence later civic attitudes and behaviors.The aim of the present study was to enhance our understanding of these influences by examining the possible impacts of parents as models of civic involvement, experiences with community service during the secondary school years, and the potential combined effects on students' civic attitudes.With data on both parent and school influences, we were able to explore possible interactions of family and school influences.
Data collection for this project was tied directly to our previous research on the development of civic attitudes, knowledge, and skills during the college years (Moely & Ilustre, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016).As Tulane University and the city of New Orleans began to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, the university established an innovative public service graduation requirement.The first class to which this requirement applied entered Tulane in the fall of 2006.At that time, little information was available about the immediate or long-term effects on students of a required service-learning/public service academic experience.Tulane's adoption of the requirement came about in response to the obvious and immediate needs of the community after the hurricane and flooding of August 2005, rather than on the basis of any research indicating how such a requirement would be received by university students.In order to learn about reactions to the requirement, the Center for Public Service at Tulane began to study students' civic views, attitudes, and knowledge.Students beginning their studies at Tulane in 2006Tulane in , 2007Tulane in , and 2008 were surveyed soon after they entered the university.To determine how their attitudes changed or stabilized over time, the same students were surveyed again after two years of academic study, and then again after four years.Some of the major findings of this research included the following:  Students felt positive about the public service graduation requirement, at college entry and after two and four years at the university (Moely & Ilustre, 2011, 2013, 2016). Students' civic attitudes, knowledge, and self-evaluated skills for community engagement exhibited notable stability over time (Moely & Ilustre, 2013, 2016). Graduating seniors reported that through their public service experiences, they had enhanced their civic/cultural perspectives, their leadership and social skills, and their cognitive/academic learning, while also developing plans for their future careers and life's work (Moely & Ilustre, 2016). Over time, students demonstrated increases in their valuing of community engagement, social justice attitudes, efforts to seek civic knowledge, and self-assessed knowledge of New Orleans and of current events (Moely & Ilustre, 2013, 2016). Students' civic attitude changes were due not simply to increases in age but to particular college experiences, including service-learning course work (Moely & Ilustre, 2013, 2014).
The present study partially replicated and extended this earlier research, focusing on pre-college service and parent influences on students' civic attitudes.Previously, we found that students' reports of their pre-college community service experiences predicted their views of the graduation requirement and their plans for completing it (Moely & Ilustre, 2011).In particular, students' enjoyment of pre-college community service was a strong predictor of attitudes at college entry.In addition, ratings of the impact of that service predicted views about the requirement, while the amount of time students reported engaging in such service predicted the amount of service they planned to engage in during college.In a survey of the same students after they had completed two years of college, we found that these indices of pre-college community service continued to predict students' perspectives and plans concerning the graduation requirement (Moely & Ilustre, 2013).One focus of the present research was to determine if students' views about the graduation requirement, and the relationships between pre-college service and attitudes about college service, would be replicated in a new group of students surveyed several years after the most dramatic effects of Katrina had lessened.We developed new questions for the present study concerning the possible influence of parents on students' views and the manner in which a family's service orientation might be related to both a student's pre-college service and his or her attitudes toward required service during college.The following research questions guided this study: 1. How do students entering Tulane University in 2013 compare with those who began their studies at the same institution in 2006-2008 regarding their views of the university's public service graduation requirement and their civic attitudes and knowledge?2. Do experiences in the family influence students' views of the public service graduation requirement, their civic interests, and their civic attitudes at college entry? 3. Do pre-college service experiences influence students' views of the public service graduation requirement, their civic interests and their civic attitudes at college entry? 4. How are the influences of family and pre-college service related in their impacts?Specifically, is there evidence that family factors have indirect, as well as direct, effects on students' civic views, interests, and attitudes?

Research Participants
The 178 students who completed the survey for this study constituted 11% of the 2013 entering class of 1,690 students.As shown in Table 1, the group tended to be female, White, and from states other than Louisiana.Only 16% of fathers and 20% of mothers had not completed at least a four-year college degree, and many of the parents held graduate degrees.Students themselves reported plans for advanced education, with most planning to continue their studies after receiving their undergraduate degrees.In comparison with the 670 students who were tested at college entry as part of the earlier longitudinal study, the students in the present study had higher high school GPAs (p < .01)and were more likely to come from states other than Louisiana (p < .01);they were similar in other demographics.

Measures
To allow comparisons with the earlier study, our survey included several measures that were the same as those used in 2006-2008(Moely & Ilustre, 2011).These measures included students' reported demographic and background characteristics; their views of the graduation requirement and plans for completing it; reasons for attending Tulane and their expectations for their college experience (Moely & Ilustre, 2013); civic attitudes (i.e., civic responsibility [Furco, 1999], value placed on community engagement [Moely & Ilustre, 2011], and social justice [Moely, Mercer, Ilustre, Miron, & McFarland (2002)]); and civic knowledge (i.e., knowledge of New Orleans culture and issues, seeking information about political/societal issues [Moely & Ilustre, 2011]).Internal consistency reliability for the scales with this new sample were adequate, ranging from alpha = .79for "seeks information" to alpha = .93for "knowledge of New Orleans culture and issues."Students' involvement in community service prior to college was measured by asking about students' enjoyment of service, the extent to which they felt their service had had an impact in the community, and the amount of time they had spent in service activities (see Table 2).

Hours of Service
"How much did you enjoy this service?"We created new questions to assess students' views of the extent to which their parents were involved in service in the community and their family's general orientation toward service (see Table 3).Fathers' involvement in public or community service was rated lower than mothers' involvement.Correlations between parent ratings and the overall family rating were significant for each parent; ratings by mothers were especially predictive of the family's overall orientation toward public service.Ratings for parent service were generally low: The modal response for mothers' service (by 42% of the sample) was a rating point indicating that they engaged in service "once in a while."Regarding fathers, the most frequent rating (by 43% of the students) indicated that the fathers engaged in no service.Note: *** Correlations were all significant at p < .001.Ratings for involvement of mothers were higher than ratings of fathers' involvement, F(1,148) = 22.81, p < .001.
In an open-ended survey question, students were asked to describe ways in which their parents served the community.The activities that students identified most often were related to services to children through schools, clubs, or organizations (mentioned by19% of mothers and 8% of fathers) and service associated with religious organizations (mentioned by 15% of mothers and 12% of fathers).Mothers also reported engaging in food-related service (11% mentioned food pantries, feeding the homeless, or Meals on Wheels).Other activities included health-related services, fundraising and financial aid, and roles as officers or board members for service organizations.Mothers' service activities were described in some form by 62% of respondents, while fathers' activities were described by only 31% of the students.Many students either failed to answer the question or indicated that they did not know about their parents' community service activities.Thus, there was consistency between ratings of parents' service involvement and responses to the open-ended questions, with each measure showing that students were aware of greater public service involvement by mothers than by fathers, and that they saw their parents as rather limited in service involvement.

Procedure
Soon after they arrived on campus in the fall of 2013, the entering students were invited by e-mail to take part in a survey about their views of the university's emphasis on public service and about their attitudes toward community engagement.The survey was made available on a website called Campus Labs (http://www.campuslabs.com),so that students could complete it at their convenience.The researchers sent a reminder e-mail to students a few weeks after the initial invitation.Students who completed the survey were eligible to take part in a drawing for gift certificates of $50 each; 10 such gift certificates were awarded.
Procedures for the study were approved by Tulane's institutional review board.

Results
The first research question concerned the similarity of views expressed by the 2013 group with those of students who had participated in earlier years.Comparisons were made between the two groups' views of the public service graduation requirement and students' plans for service, civic interests at the time of college entry, civic attitudes and knowledge, and pre-college service experiences.

Students' Views of the Public Service Requirement
We asked students to indicate their views of the university's public service requirement and their plans for engaging in service while enrolled at Tulane.Generally, the students responded very positively, with 71% indicating that public service experiences are a "good idea" for learning about academic subject matter.The 2013 sample was more positive about the requirement than were the students in the 2006-2008 sample (see Table 4).When asked about how much public service they planned to do, only 15% indicated that they would limit their involvement to simply meeting the requirement.The amount of service students planned to undertake was similar to that indicated by students in earlier years.We asked students whether they had been aware of the graduation requirement when they applied to the university.In the 2013 sample, 80% indicated such awareness.Their responses were similar to those of students entering in 2008 (71% were aware) but higher than responses from the 2006 (56%) and 2007 (54%) entering classes, X 2 (df = 4) = 24.51,p < .001.Awareness related significantly to both evaluation of and plans for the public service requirement, r's = .33and .34,both p < .001.

Students' Interests at College Entry
Following earlier procedures (Moely & Ilustre, 2013), we obtained summary variables to compare students' interests in civic, academic, and social aspects of college.These were based on students' responses to survey questions asking about their reasons for choosing Tulane and their expected gains during college.Students were most positive about the academic aspects of the college experience, showed moderate interest in the civic aspects, and expressed the least interest in social aspects.Means differed significantly, according to a repeated measures analysis of variance, F(2, 145) = 82.92,p < .001.Students in the 2013 sample were more positive about both academic and social interests at college entry than were the earlier participants, but there was no significant difference in civic interests (see Table 5).The 2013 respondents also reported stronger high school grades, with a mean score (on a 4-point scale) of 3.83 (SD = .23)compared to a mean of 3.69 (SD = .40)for the 2006-2008 group, F(1, 824) = 18.51, p < .001.

Students' Civic Attitudes, Interests, and Knowledge
Students in the 2013 sample obtained scores on civic attitude measures that were similar to or higher than those of students surveyed in earlier years (see Table 5).The 2013 students rated civic responsibility and social justice values more positively than did students surveyed earlier.The two groups did not differ in their reported level of civic interest at the time of college entry or in their views of the value of community engagement.On the other hand, the 2013 students were less positive about their own civic knowledge and reported less effort to seek information about political and social issues than those surveyed earlier.

Pre-College Service Experiences
The students in the 2013 sample reported increased involvement in service-learning or volunteer service activities with increasing age: While only 38% reported such service in Grades K to 4, 78% did so in Grades 5 to 8, and nearly all students (98%) engaged in community service during their secondary school years.Most (98%) had performed service as a volunteer activity, while 60% did so as a school requirement, 68% through a service organization (e.g., Boys or Girls Clubs), 41% through a religious organization, and 34% for a service-learning course.Comparisons with the 2006-2008 sample showed that students in the two groups reported spending about the same amount of time engaging in service activities, but those in the 2013 sample rated both their enjoyment and the impact of their service more positively than the 2006-2008 students did (see Table 5).

Predicting Students' Views from Family and Pre-College Service Experiences
The study's second and third research questions centered on identifying the possible predictive impact of students' experiences in the family and the community during the year prior to college enrollment on their civic attitudes after entering college.To investigate these questions, we conducted regression analyses to predict attitudes from three sets of variables: Step 1 controlled for gender and racial/ethnic (White vs. non-White) differences; step 2 included the three family measures: mother involvement in service, father involvement, and family orientation toward service; and Step 3 included three aspects of pre-college service: enjoyment and impact of service, and hours of service completed.Table 6 summarizes the predictions of students' reactions to the public service graduation requirement (evaluation and plans), while Table 7 summarizes predictions of students' civic attitudes: civic responsibility, valuing of community engagement and civic interests at college entry.For three additional scales, the regression analyses did not show effects related to either family or service: social justice, seeking information about political/social issues, and knowledge of New Orleans culture and issues.These scales were not considered further.
Women were more positive than men on all of the measures except civic interests.They demonstrated more positive views of the graduation requirement and more ambitious plans for completing it, as well as stronger endorsement of civic responsibility and greater valuing of community engagement.Race/ethnicity did not add to the predictive value of any of the variables.
Overall, family orientation toward service predicted students' evaluations of the graduation requirement and their scores on measures of civic responsibility, valuing community engagement, and civic interests.Neither of the parent ratings alone predicted measures, most likely because they were correlated with the family orientation variable.
Students' prior experiences with community service were particularly significant predictors: Ratings of the extent to which students had enjoyed their prior service was a consistent predictor of their evaluations, plans, attitudes, and interests.Rated impact of pre-college service was related to the evaluation of the requirement and valuing of community engagement.Hours of service significantly predicted plans for future service and valuing of community engagement.The regression analyses are summarized in Tables 6 and 7.

Testing a Mediation Model
The final research question concerned relationships between two sets of predictors (i.e., family characteristics and pre-college service experiences) and entering students' views.We proposed a developmental model in which the family influences student attitudes through the mediating influence of pre-college service experiences.We considered this for each of the variables listed in Tables 6 and 7 but report here only the results of data analysis for students' evaluation of the graduation requirement.
In order to establish a mediating variable, four conditions must be met (Baron & Kenny, 1986;Moely & Gallini, 2003): First, there must be a significant relationship between the predictor A (in this case, family characteristics) and the potential mediator B (students' pre-college community service); second, there must be a significant relationship between B and the outcome C (students' evaluations of the graduation requirement); third, the relationship between A and C must be significant; and fourth, that relationship must be significantly diminished when the mediating variable (B) is entered into the regression equation.Analyses showed evidence for these relationships.First, the regression analyses presented in Table 8 revealed that family characteristics (A) predicted each of three measures of students' pre-college community service (B).Second, the regression analyses summarized in Table 6 showed that the measures of pre-college service (B) predicted the outcome variable (C, evaluation of the requirement).Third, the relationship between A (family orientation) and the outcome variable C was significant (Table 6).Finally, the relationship between family orientation (A) and evaluation (C) was reduced when measures of pre-college service (B) were entered into the regression equation.The regression analysis summarized in Table 9 for the evaluation measure demonstrates this reduction in predictive value of the family orientation variable when pre-college service measures were included in the prediction model.It is important to note that the prediction of evaluations from family orientation was still significant after service variables were entered; however, the magnitude of the prediction was reduced.Analyses of scores for scales measuring civic responsibility, valuing of community engagement, and civic interests showed similar patterns.

Discussion
We undertook this replication study with some concern.Would students in 2013 exhibit the same positive views of the public service graduation requirement as demonstrated by entering classes soon after Katrina had devastated New Orleans?Perhaps this new cohort would be uninterested in community involvement, since the city's needs for service were less obvious than they had been earlier.We were pleased and somewhat surprised to discover that the 2013 entering class was as positive, if not more positive, about the requirement than were students from earlier years.Most students entering in 2013 were aware that public service would be emphasized at the university, having learned about it from admissions materials and presentations as well as from information sources available online (e.g., see Pope, 2010;Saulny, 2006, or U.S. News andWorld Report, 2015.)Awards to the university, such as membership in the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll (n.d.), also emphasized Tulane's community focus.Previous social psychological research (e.g., Stukas, Snyder, & Clary, 1999) has shown that requirements are not viewed negatively if they correspond to the beliefs and values held by individuals.Entering students knew there was a requirement and were optimistic about spending time in the community.Our longitudinal research has demonstrated that these positive attitudes are maintained over time as students go about their studies and complete the requirement prior to graduation (Moely & Ilustre, 2013, 2016).
The students in the 2013 sample expressed civic interests similar to those shown by students entering in earlier years, but they were more positive about civic responsibility and social justice issues and more enthusiastic about their pre-college service experiences, suggesting a higher level of commitment to community engagement.These students did score lower on a scale regarding their efforts to seek information about political and social issues, but that may have been due to changes, over the past decade, in how people obtain information; questions on that scale did not emphasize the online sources of information often used today.The lack of effort to seek information does correspond to these students rating themselves as less well-informed about issues in the city of New Orleans than the earlier groups.However, it is also possible that these more engaged students had higher standards what knowledge of community should include than did students in the earlier study.
The importance of family factors was apparent in several findings.First, family orientation was a strong predictor of students' attitudes, interests, and views of the graduation requirement.It also predicted all three measures of students' pre-college service.Mothers received higher ratings for service, and their ratings were more strongly correlated with the overall rating of family orientation toward service than were fathers' ratings.The parents provided models of community involvement through their service activities.It is possible that students were more aware of the service their mothers did since they often described mothers' contributions to schools and religious organizations, while seeming less informed about fathers' possible service activities.The family orientation measure appeared to be a composite of students' views of community involvement of mothers, fathers, and the students themselves.Mean scores were not high, indicating, at best, a moderate level of service involvement by family members.The importance of family factors was further demonstrated by the relationships shown in Figure 1: Not only were family factors directly related to students' attitudes, they also influenced the extent to which students were involved in service prior to college, which also contributed to the developing students' civic interests and attitudes.
Figure 1.Predicting students' views of the public service graduation requirement from family orientation and pre-college service experiences.Students' ratings of the extent to which their families had been involved in community service (A) predicted students' involvement in pre-college service (B) (Table 8).This family orientation measure (A) also predicted attitudes at college entry about a public service graduation requirement (C) (Table 6).Students' service experiences (B) also predicted these attitudes (C) (Table 6).Analysis showed that the prediction of attitudes (C) by family orientation (A) was reduced when students' service experiences prior to college entry (B) were taken into account ( requirement directly and also indirectly, as that orientation led to students' involvement in the community prior to college. For students entering the university between 2006 and 2008, pre-college community service had an impact on civic attitudes.The present study replicated and extended this finding.It was particularly notable that, in the present study, students' reported enjoyment of their service was the strongest and most consistent predictor of civic attitudes and interests.Students who had enjoyed their pre-college community service experiences were more positive about the graduation requirement and scored higher in relation to civic interests and civic attitudes.As in the earlier study, hours of service prior to college predicted plans for future involvement, and the impact ratings predicted evaluation of the requirement.These findings are consistent with those of Nicotera, Brewer, and Veeh (2015), whose research showed positive carryover from high school service to well-being among first-year undergraduate students.
An important limitation of the study was that all measures were reports by the student and thus might have reflected certain unspecified biases or misunderstandings.For example, students interested in civic engagement might have been biased toward seeing their parents as sharing those interests.The similarity between students' ratings of parents' involvement and their reports on the open-ended questions suggests some validity for the ratings.However, we do not know what parents themselves would have said about their community service; it is possible, for instance, that they were involved in service through their work settings in ways that were not obvious to their children.We view this research as a step toward learning about parent influences, one that can be furthered by more direct measures such as parent interviews or family observations.Another limitation concerns the generality of these findings.Research participants included students at a private university admitted selectively from a large number of applicants (Pope, 2010); thus, they may not represent college students in general.Again, this is a question for future research: How would students in other settings respond to a similar public service graduation requirement?

Conclusion
The findings of this study highlight the importance of high-quality community service for students at the elementary and secondary level.Service that students enjoy and see as impactful can have lasting effects for them, carrying over to college entry and beyond (Moely & Ilustre, 2011, 2013).Nicotera, Brewer, and DesMarais (2013) have shown the impacts of community action programs on high school students.As a result of their pre-college experiences, new college students bring varied experiences, interests, and values that affect how they respond to service-learning and other civic engagement opportunities.Service-learning programs at the college level should offer varied experiences ranging from a basic introduction to the community to opportunities requiring individualized and in-depth contributions.Students with little background in community service can benefit from a structured service-learning experience with hours, site, and activities provided by the program, along with education on community strengths and needs, what service-learning is, and what such a program aims to accomplish.Students who already have an extensive community service background may profit more from academic experiences such as internships and community-based research, which would allow them to exercise more autonomy, creativity, and leadership and thereby further develop their particular individual skills for the benefit of communities served.Indeed, well-planned and -implemented community engagement experiences during college can have lasting influences on graduates' civic attitudes, career choices, and community engagement long after college graduation (Keen & Hall, 2009;Vogelgesang, 2009;Vogelgesang, & Astin, 2000).
p < .001,for comparisons of 2006-08 and 2013 groups, according to analyses of variance of each measure.

Table 1 .
Table 1 also summarizes data for the entire entering class of 2013 (Tulane University, 2013).Compared with these peers, the sample for the current study was somewhat more likely to be female (p < .05)and to have mothers possessing slightly less advanced education (p < .05).Characteristics of Each Group of Research Participants

Table 2 .
Measuring Students' Participation in and Gains from Community Service

Table 3 .
Measures of Family Involvement in Public/Community Service

Table 4 .
Students' Views of the Public Service Requirement The 2013 sample was significantly different from the 2006-2008 group, according to a Chi-square test of frequencies, Χ 2 (3, 828) = 11.79,p < .01.An analysis of variance of a score derived from the frequencies above also showed a group difference, at p < .02,with the 2013 sample showing stronger positive endorsement of public service than students did in the earlier survey.No group difference in students' plans was shown, using either Chisquare or analysis of variance tests.

Table 5 .
Comparisons of Two Samples on Interests at College Entry, Civic Attitudes and Knowledge, and Pre-College Service

Table 6 .
Predicting Students' Views at College Entry of the Public Service Graduation Requirement from Family and Pre-College Service Experiences

Table 8 .
Predicting Students' Pre-College Service from Family Characteristics

Table 9 .
Testing for Mediation of Family Influence by Students' Pre-College Service Experiences for Students' Views of the Public Service Graduation Requirement

Table 9 )
. Partial mediation was shown: Family orientation predicted students' attitude toward a public service graduation