Civic Engagement a Precursor to Well-Being

The goal of positive development is the promotion of healthy physical, intellectual, psychosocial and emotional development. It equips young people with attributes, skills, competencies, and values that will contribute to their future role as productive, socially-minded, healthy citizens likely to succeed in areas of family, work, and society. This study investigates the relationship between civic engagement and subjective well-being. To serve this purpose the research designed consisted of 300 participants, 150 females and 150 males, in the age range of 18 to 28 yrs from urban India. Purposive random sampling technique was used. The measurement tools used for the purpose of data collection were the Civic Engagement Scale (CES) by Amy Doolittle and Anna Faul (2013) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) developed by Diener et al. (1985). The results reveal positive correlation between the scores on civic engagement status and subjective well-being (r=0.84, p=<.01). When civic engagement is entered in the regression model with subjective well-being as a criterion for the total sample, civic engagement itself contributed to 57.9% of the variance. Probability that the regression output is not by chance is seen by "significance F". Engagement as sense of belonging can foster participation in activities, communities, and institutions, and the process of participation can foster a sense of belonging. Civic engagement is critical to both positive youth development and to healthy societies and democracies. In these ways, engagement is both a process and an outcome. It is important to provide emerging adults with more opportunities to experience a sense of and promote prosocial behaviours in the community context.