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Examining links from civic engagement to daily well-being from a self-determination theory perspective

2017; Routledge; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17439760.2017.1388432

1743-9779

Laura Wray‐Lake, Cody R. DeHaan, Jennifer Shubert, Richard M. Ryan,

Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering

Civic engagement may benefit individuals who engage in it, yet empirical evidence is lacking. We examined whether civic engagement was associated with well-being in a seven-day daily diary study of 276 college students. Based on self-determination theory, we hypothesized that satisfaction of basic psychological needs mediates the link between civic engagement and well-being. Four types of civic engagement – helping, pro-environmental behavior, volunteering, and charitable giving – were examined as separate predictors and as a composite predictor of daily well-being. The composite was associated with higher well-being across days, and basic needs satisfaction had a significant indirect effect on this association. Helping and pro-environmental behavior were linked to daily well-being directly and indirectly through basic needs satisfaction. No effects were evident for volunteering or charitable giving. Results suggest that civic engagement may enhance well-being, although some types of civic engagement may enhance well-being more than others.