Education, accomplishments, and related professional information for this faculty member can be found in his vita.

The Development of Citizenship

Citizenship is as important a domain of adult responsibility as work and the family, yet it has been the subject of far less research. It has been proposed that as a nation, we are confronting a crisis in civic engagement, particularly in youth. It is clear that we are not attending adequately to the political socialization of young people. Our research program at Fordham University is designed to understand how young people develop knowledge about, interest in, and become involved in the political system. Examples range from voting, campaigning or other instances of active citizenship to helping out in one’s community or doing service learning in school.

The research program we have begun at Fordham this year on the development of citizenship in youth has four components.

First, we are interested in the political views of youth. Most past research has surveyed youth only about a limited range of views related to issues of social justice or capitalism and democracy. Youth have a public image of being apathetic and unconcerned with politics. Our initial work indicates that youth are not apathetic but, in fact, hold relatively sophisticated views about issues that are directly important to them. We are holding focus groups and surveying youth in three different high schools about their reactions to a wide range of issues in the political sphere. Schools are chosen to obtain a broad cross-section of youth.

Second, we want to examine a particular model of citizenship development. There has not been adequate conceptual attention to citizenship as an outcome variable of youth development. We propose that there are three components of citizenship: active citizenship or actual political participation, concern for others and moral behavior, and connectedness or where the youth's major affiliation lies. We examine: youth's engagement in school, community organizations, and other structured activities; their opportunities for and encouragement of prosocial behavior and/or exploration of moral issues; socialization from their family in regard both to politics and family loyalty; their involvement in religion; their experience as a minority for example, racial discrimination and racial socialization; and their school experiences especially in regard to civics education. We ask if these variables align themselves according to the three dimensions of citizenship we have proposed.

We are also particularly interested in population differences in youth political development. Quite interesting race and class differences have been demonstrated in political development. Furthermore, poor and minority youth have a particularly negative public image in regard to citizenship, so that we are especially interested in race and class differences. Bronx area high schools allow one to disentangle the impact of race and class on civic engagement. Differences will be examined in regard to youth's political views and in experiences that relate to the three components of citizenship we have proposed. For example, poor or minority youth may not score high on "active citizenship" but may show citizenship in regard to connectedness to religion, family, or community. Do political views relate only to active citizenship or can connectedness to family or concern for others also facilitate an interest in politics? At perhaps the other end of the spectrum, handicapped people have been particularly interested in activism and effective in lobbying for legislation to protect their rights. How do handicapped youth develop a sense of citizenship that leads to such activism? How do their sense of citizenship and their political views differ from those of other youth? We also want to examine the role of schools in facilitating youth political development. School climate and teacher behavior, for example, have been shown to be important influences on youth's sense of civic engagement. How do these variables interact with actual civics education and with school experiences such as community service or extracurricular activities? Are school-related variables differentially important to different populations?

Finally, we are interested in service learning and civic activism as vehicles to the development of citizenship. What are the characteristics of youth who voluntarily choose to do service—in regard to family background, religion, academic orientation, and citizenship (re. the three components described above)? What impact does service learning versus non-credit service have on youth development in psychosocial as well as academic areas? What other characteristics of programs, such as opportunity for reflection, autonomy, type of service, relationship to supervisor or mentor, influence impact? Are there age differences in impact of service—how early do youth need to begin service to develop a general concern for helping others? What is the impact of the service on the served? Is civic activism a more appropriate vehicle for impacting poor and minority youth than community service? How do youth conceive of activism?

Other Research-Related Activities

I am directing a Consortium of researchers from different disciplines in order to plan a research agenda in the area of youth political development. The Consortium, funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, represents an aspect of the Foundation's program development and is intended to promote research on this topic from several social behavioral science disciplines. Relevant to the consortium I have participated in a task force of the American Political Science Association on civics education. I have also consulted with a new working group of the Social Science Research Council on youth development from an international perspective; this group is examining the impact of globalization on youth and youth development in developing countries, and one key issue is civic engagement. At Fordham colleague Ann Higgins and I have started a Faculty Seminar on Youth Culture to examine a number of these issues.

Program Evaluation

I am also particularly interested in program evaluation and in the use of community based programs serving youth as contexts for studying development. Programs that aim to promote positive youth development, such as youth philanthropy are of special interest. My graduate course on program evaluation pursues this orientation to program evaluation.

Social Policy

I have a particular commitment to disseminating research and using it to guide the development of social policies and programs for youth. For a number of years now I have worked with the Committee on Communications and Policy of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), having served as chair and cochair for several years. I now edit SRCD's Social Policy Report (along with Associate Editor Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Columbia University ), which is its publication oriented to dissemination and social policy. The other graduate course I teach is on social policy.

Service to Fordham

At the undergraduate level, I teach Introductory Psychology and Infant and Child Development. I serve as a Freshman Advisor,am on the Student Life Committee of the Faculty Senate, on the Graduate Student Outcomes Committee, and on the Psychology Department's Committee on Content Courses in the Undergraduate Curriculum. I call newly admitted freshman for the Admissions Office and work with the Public Relations Office in communicating with the media on issues relevant to children and youth. I serve on the Fulbright Fellowship Review Committee.

Related Publications

Bogard, K. & Sherrod, L. (2006) Allegiances and civic engagement in diverse youth. In preparation.

Sherrod, L. R. & Baskir, L. (2006) Gender differences in the political interests of U.S. teens. In Ittel et al (eds.), Journal of Research on Social Issues, in press.

Sherrod, L.R. & Quinones, O., & Davila, C. (2004). Youth’s political views and their experience of September 11, 2001. Applied Developmental Psychology, 25, 149-170.

Sherrod, L. R. (2003) Promoting the development of citizenship in diverse youth. PS: Political Science and Politics, April, 287-292.

Sherrod, L.R. , Flanagan, C., & Youniss, J. , Eds. (2002) Growing into citizenship: Multiple pathways and diverse influences. A special issue of Applied Developmental Science , 6 (4). Editors’ Introduction, 172-173.

Sherrod, L. R., Flanagan, C. & Youniss, J. (2002) Dimensions of citizenship and opportunities for youth development. In Sherrod, Flanagan, & Youniss (Eds.), Applied Developmental Science, 6 (4), 264-272.

Flanagan, C. & Sherrod, L.R. (1998) Political Development: Growing Up in a Global Community. A special issue of the Journal of Social Issues , 54, Fall.

Flanagan, C. & Sherrod, L.R. (1998) Youth Political Development: An Introduction. Journal of Social Issues , 54:447-456.

Religion and Spirituality

We are interested in development of religiosity and/or spirituality and its relationship to citizenship. There is increasing research on religion and spirituality. We are particularly interested in its relation to the developm ent of citizenship. Is it a path to citizenship or an alternative? I am joining a large multidisciplinary team, headed by Richard Lerner, Tufts University, to examine cross nationally the interactions between religion, civic engagement and positive development in youth.

Sherrod, L.& Baskir, L. (2005) Religiosity and service participation in young adults. In preparation.

Service and service learning

We are interested in service and service learning, especially as a vehicle to the development of citizenship. What are the characteristics of youth who voluntarily choose to do service—in regard to family background, religion, academic orientation, and citizenship (re. the three components described above)? What impact does service learning versus non-credit service have on youth development in psychosocial as well as academic areas? What other characteristics of programs, such as opportunity for reflection, autonomy, type of service, relationship to supervisor or mentor, influence impact? What are youth’s attitudes to service? Why do they do service? And how do attitudes relate to impact/ Are there age differences in impact of service—how early do youth need to begin service to develop a general concern for helping others? What is the impact of the service on the served? Is civic activism a more appropriate vehicle for impacting poor and minority youth than community service?

I am the Faculty Director for the Community Service Learning Program at Fordham. I serve on the Board of Trustees Student Affairs Committee and the Faculty Senate Student Life Committee and have chaired this co mmittee.

Sherrod, L. & Baskir, L. (2006 ) Youth participation in community service and its relation to civic engagement. In preparation.

American Psychological Association
Association for Psychological Science