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11

CommuniCation and SoCiodemographiCForCeS Shaping CiviC engagementpatternS in a multiethniC City

Nien-Tsu Nancy Chen, Katherine Ognyanova,Nan Zhao,Wenlin Liu, Daniela Gerson,Sandra Ball-Rokeach, and Michael Parks

Research has revealed a continuous decline in civic engagement levelacross the United States over recent decades and persistently lower rateso engagement among ethnic minorities compared with Whites (Putnam,

2000; Skocpol, 2003; Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995). This is a causeor concern as the country becomes ever more diverse and as minorities

become the majority in an increasing number o neighborhoods (U.S.Census Bureau, 2011a). In an e ort to begin addressing this concern, thepresent study investigates the underlying mechanisms leading to ethnicdisparities in civic engagement. Using data gathered rom three ethnicgroups (i.e., Chinese, Latinos, and Anglos) co-inhabiting an incorporatedcity in Los Angeles County, Cali ornia, separate statistical analyses wereconducted to investigate i the paths to engagement di ered by ethnicity. 1

207

1In this chapter, Whites and Anglos are used interchangeably to re er toindividuals who are Caucasian or non-Hispanic/Latino White; Latinos is used to


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208 Chen, OgnyanOva, ZhaO, Liu, gersOn, BaLL-rOkeaCh, and Parks

A ter all, as Leighley and Vedlitz (1999) suggested, ethnicity can structurehow other individual-level variables in uence civic engagement.

Consensus is lacking on what civic engagement entails. Some studiesocus exclusively on participation in electoral activities, whereas others

include a wider range o indicators, such as involvement in politicalvoice activities (Lopez et al., 2006), participation in activities aimed atimproving ones local community or helping others (Putnam, 2000; Shah,Cho, Eveland, & Kwak, 2005), the eeling o belonging to a residentialarea (Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2006a), and a sense o political or collectivee fcacy (Je res, Atkin, & Neuendor , 2002). The present study ollowsKim and Ball-Rokeachs (2006a, 2006b) defnition o civic engagement, adefnition developed and validated based on studies conducted in ethni-cally diverse neighborhoods (Kim, 2003; Matsaganis, 2008; Wilkin, Katz,& Ball-Rokeach, 2009). By operationalizing civic engagement as a three-dimensional construct comprising civic participation, collective e fcacy,and neighborhood belonging, this defnition provides an inclusive rame-work or assessing the objective behavior o neighborliness and partici-pation in civic activities, as well as the subjective eelings o collectivee fcacy and attachment to a residential area.

A long line o research has ocused on the orces shaping civic engage-ment. Many individual-level analyses have identifed age, income, andeducation as key sociodemographic predictors o civic engagement (Shah,1998). Older Americans are typically more active in civic activities andorganizations compared with younger generations (Norris, 1996; Zukin,Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, & Delli Carpini, 2006), and this fnding hasbeen explained variously as li e-cycle, generational, or period e ects (Put-nam, 1996; Shah, 1998). The in uence o income and education is o tenexplicated in terms o resources. It is argued that individuals o highersocioeconomic status (SES) beneft more rom civic participation becausethey have a higher stake in society (Downs, 1957), and they also incurlower costs in civic participation because they already possess many o the skills and fnancial resources necessary or participation (Riker &Ordeshook, 1986). However, Cho (1999) proposes that SES, especially

re er to persons who are o Latin-American origin; Asians re ers to individualswho are o East Asian, Southeast Asian, or South Asian descent; and Blacksre ers to persons having origins in any o the Black racial groups o A rica. The

present studys Asian participants were restricted to ethnic Chinese (i.e., individualswho sel -identifed their ethnicity as either Chinese or Taiwanese) due to thelinguistic capabilities o the research team, who conducted multilingual interviewswith study participants in Spanish, English, and Mandarin.


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COmmuniCatiOn and sOCiOdemOgraPhiC fOrCes 209

when operationalized as educational attainment, is actually an indicatoro the degree o socialization one has undergone to embrace the values o American democracy and civic participation. Given that these values andthe skills necessary or participation in the United States might not receiveas much emphasis in the education system in other countries, educationcould have less or even no impact on civic participation among immi-grants primarily educated overseas. This argument has been supported byresearch showing a lack o association between SES and civic engagementamong Asians (Leighley & Vedlitz, 1999; Lien, 1994; Ramakrishnan &Baldassare, 2004). Other sociodemographic actors that can be linkedto the process o socialization, such as age, might also have a weakerassociation with participation among immigrants inso ar as being olderdoes not translate into a longer period o time spent in the United States.Indeed, Ramakrishnan and Baldassare (2004) observed age to have a di -

erent relationship with civic participation among Latinos compared withother ethnic groups residing in Cali ornia. Consequently, it is crucial toinclude immigration-related actors in analyzing ethnic minorities partici-pation patterns because these actors are indicative o minorities degreeo socialization into American civic norms.

Indeed, Cho (1999) ound that controlling or oreign-born sta-tus and English profciency eliminated disparities in civic participationacross ethnic groups. However, Uhlaner, Cain, and Kiewiet (1989) aswell as Ramakrishnan and Baldassare (2004) ound that, holding con-stant sociodemographic and immigration-related actors, Asians still hadlower participation in political and civic activities compared with Whites,whereas the disparities among Whites, Blacks, and Latinos largely dis-appeared. They suggested that this phenomenon could be explained byAsians historical experience o alienation rom the political system bothin the United States and abroad, as well as their relatively dispersedresidential patterns.

Residential concentration or segregation o ethnic groups has beenone o the most widely investigated contextual actors in civic engagementresearch. From the perspective o utility calculation, individuals living inplaces with ew co-ethnics have little motivation to participate civicallybecause they do not have su fcient in-group members to make a di er-ence (Ramakrishnan & Baldassare, 2004; Uhlaner et al., 1989). Politicalmobilization e orts are also less likely to target minority groups that aresmall in size (Cho, Gimpel, & Dyck, 2006; Verba et al., 1995). Similarly,the social network literature on homophily (Monge & Contractor, 2003)and the relational goods hypothesis (Uhlaner et al., 1989) suggest thatliving in an area with a large number o co-ethnics is more conducive tocivic engagement. Individuals are more likely to orm social networks with


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others o similar backgrounds, such as ethnicity, religion, and occupation(McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001), and these networks in turnprovide e ective channels o in ormation exchange and orient individu-als toward group-based pre erences that acilitate engagement (Leighley,2001; Uhlaner et al., 1989).

While a positive association between civic engagement and living witha large number o co-ethnics has been observed among Whites, Blacks,and Latinos (Matsubayashi, 2010; Rotolo, 2000), Cho et al. (2006) oundan inverse relationship among Asians. These authors suggested that ornew immigrants, especially the frst generation who tended to have lowerEnglish profciency, living with co-ethnics limited their opportunities tointeract with participation-inclined out-group members, thereby reducingpressures to socialize into American civic norms. However, the dampeninge ect o residential concentration among Asians was ound to be smallerin Cali ornia compared with the rest o the nation. Cho et al. arguedthat this was mainly due to the states exceptionally large Asian popula-tion and numerous Asian ethnic organizations that regularly engaged inmobilization or political or larger civic purposes. Consequently, theseauthors concluded that the contextual dynamics shaping civic engagementwere multilayered and complex, an argument echoed by Ramakrishnanand Baldassare (2004), who suggested that in states with highly variedgeographical regions, there were likely to be distinctions in the levels andtypes o civic engagement across regions, as well as within these regionswith respect to di erent ethnic groups.

In addition to sociodemographic and structural actors, communica-tion plays an integral role in acilitating civic engagement. Classic worksby Tarde (in Katz, 2006), Habermas (1984), and Katz and Lazars eld(1955) have demonstrated the importance o interpersonal conversationand, to a lesser extent, mass-mediated communication in enabling in or-mation-sharing and opinion ormation about public a airs, which subse-quently shape civic involvement. In contrast, Andersons (1983) seminalbook argues that communication in the orm o mass-mediated collectivestorytelling allows individuals to imagine themselves as part o a largercommunity in lieu o interpersonal contact. While these classic texts rametheir discussions primarily at the national level, research has revealed thatcivic engagement at the local level is similarly positively associated withthe use o local media (Finnegan & Viswanath, 1988; Je res, Dobes,& Sweeney, 1987; Viswanath, Finnegan, Rooney, & Potter, 1990) andinterpersonal conversations among neighbors (McLeod, Scheu ele, & Moy,1999; McLeod et al., 1999). However, the e ects o these communica-tion actors do not appear to be universal, as they are o ten ound to bemoderated by the structural and normative eatures o a residential area,


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such as residential stability and ethnic heterogeneity (Kang & Kwak, 2003;Shah, McLeod, & Yoon, 2001).

In an e ort to take into account the interacting in uence o com-munication and contextual actors over civic engagement, Ball-Rokeach,Kim, and colleagues (Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2006a, 2006b; Kim, Jung,& Ball-Rokeach, 2006) have developed the communication tn rastructuretheory (CIT). Based on research conducted in more than a dozen ethni-cally diverse neighborhoods across Los Angeles County, CIT studies estab-lish that each neighborhood has a unique communication in rastructurecomprising a neighborhood storytelling network set in its communica-tion action context (Ball-Rokeach, Kim, & Matei, 2001, p. 396). Theneighborhood storytelling network is made up o individual residents,geo-ethnic media, and community organizations, which are all key agentsin sharing local in ormation and telling collective stories. These commu-nication and storytelling practices in turn acilitate community-buildingand neighborhood engagement.

CIT is explicitly ormulated in network terms as it emphasizes theimportance o connections among the people, news sources, and insti-tutions interacting within a geographic area. The storytelling systemdescribed by the theory incorporates social relations based on local in or-mation exchanges. In contrast to other network rameworks with a nar-rower ocus on interpersonal ties, CIT proposes a holistic approach tothe study o complex multilevel structures embedded within a community.In addition, CIT is ormulated with an eye toward increasing populationdiversity and the critical role o ethnic media in providing news andin ormation to minorities that enable their participation in public li e(Matsaganis, Katz, & Ball-Rokeach, 2011). Consequently, CIT argues thatit is important to expand the traditional ocus on local media to examinethe e ects o geo-ethnic media, defned as media outlets that producecontent covering a geographic area, potentially ocusing on issues relevantto residents o a particular ethnicity (Ognyanova et al., 2012).

Studies based on CIT typically explore individuals connections withvarious local storytelling agents by asking them how requently they talkwith others about their neighborhood, how much they use geo-ethnicmedia to stay on top o what is happening in their neighborhood, andhow many locally based community organizations to which they belong(Kim, 2003; Matsaganis, 2008). CIT argues that the extent o civic engage-ment in a neighborhood depends not only on the individual capacities o micro- and meso-level agents to tell local stories but also on how tightlyconnected these agents are to one another. Research has shown that ahigh level o connectedness among residents, community organizations,and geo-ethnic mediameaning that each storyteller is able to stimulate


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the others to talk about their neighborhoodis most conducive to civicengagement (Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2006a, 2006b).

However, research reveals that in many diverse neighborhoods, a lowlevel or even a lack o connectedness exists among local storytellers (Ball-Rokeach, 2001; Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2006b). Furthermore, the posi-tive e ects o connections with community organizations and geo-ethnicmedia on civic engagement do not appear to be uni orm. For example,Uhlaner et al. (1989) argue that engagement is acilitated by member-ship in specifc types o organizations that are politically meaning ul,where members o the group are assumed to share some signifcantpre erences and are able to compensate or insu fcient personal resourceswith group resources. These organizations also tend to be more activein community organizing and in trans erring the knowledge, skills, andbelie s necessary or civic engagement. For example, many churches inthe United States have congregations that are ethnically homogenous,and these churches have played a critical role in acilitating political andcivic participation, especially among Blacks and Latinos (Harris, 1994;

Jones-Correa & Leal, 2001). Evidence also indicates that, among Asians,membership in religiously or ethnically based organizations has greaterin uence over political participation than other types o group-basedresources (Wong, Lien, & Conway, 2005). Consequently, the positivee ect o organizational membership on civic engagement is likely to becontingent on the types o organizations to which individuals o di er-ent ethnicities belong.

Similarly, earlier research that established a positive associationbetween local media use and civic engagement was conducted with pre-dominantly White samples (Finnegan & Viswanath, 1988; Je res et al.,1987; Viswanath et al., 1990). However, research using more diversesamples has shown that individuals o various ethnicities o ten turn todi erent media outlets to stay in ormed about their residential area (Mat-saganis et al., 2011). Minorities may avor ethnic media over English-language media channels or news and in ormation due to the ormerscultural and linguistic accessibility (Spence, Lachlan, & Burke, 2011; Zhou& Cai, 2002). Ethnic media outlets in the United States, however, varywidely in size, ownership structure, and geographical orientation, withsome being part o a transnational conglomerate and others being smalloperations serving a particular neighborhood (Viswanath & Lee, 2007).Consequently, not all ethnic media provide abundant local in ormation.Indeed, Lin and Song (2006) ound that ethnic media in Los Angelesengaged in little local storytelling, and evidence suggests that heavy orexclusive reliance on ethnic media negatively a ects attention to locala airs (Suro, 2004), motivation to orm cross-ethnic social ties (Zhou &


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Cai, 2002), and interest in becoming involved in electoral politics (Cho etal., 2006). As a result, the positive e ect o geo-ethnic media on locallyoriented civic engagement may not be a given.

Building on emerging research on the geo-ethnic nature o civicengagement and the varying e ects o local storytelling agents on it, thepresent study aims to provide a detailed analysis o the underlying mecha-nisms that shape di erent ethnic groups civic engagement by ocusing ona single city and holding neighborhood characteristics constant. The frststep is to explore cross-ethnic similarities and di erences in civic engage-ment levels and connections to local storytelling agents:

RQ1: What are the average levels o neighborhood belonging, collectivee fcacy, civic participation, neighborhood conversations, participation inlocally based community organizations, and connection with geo-eth-nic media or local news among the citys Chinese, Latino, and Angloresidents?

Next, hypotheses are tested to see whether previous research fndingson the e ects o sociodemographic, immigration-related, and communica-tion variables on civic engagement can be reproduced in the multiethnic

city studied. We propose that controlling or the other actors:

H1: Age positively predicts civic engagement among the Chinese, Latino,and Anglo residents.

H2: Education positively predicts civic engagement among the Chinese,Latino, and Anglo residents.

H3: Income positively predicts civic engagement among the Chinese,Latino, and Anglo residents.

H4: A longer immigration history positively predicts civic engagementamong the Chinese, Latino, and Anglo residents.

H5: English profciency positively predicts civic engagement among theChinese, Latino, and Anglo residents.

Furthermore, validation is sought or the positive impact o interper-sonal communication on civic engagement:


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H6: Frequency o interpersonal conversations about ones neighborhoodpositively predicts civic engagement among Chinese, Latino, and Angloresidents.

The ollowing research questions are also investigated:

RQ2: Is there a relationship between the number o locally based com-munity organizations to which residents belong and their civic engage-ment levels?

RQ3: Is there a relationship between the number o geo-ethnic media towhich residents connect or local news and their civic engagement levels?

reSearCh Context

The study area is a city o 83,000 residents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011b)located in Los Angeles County, Cali ornia. The two astest growing popu-lation groups in the United States are well represented in the study area,as the majority o residents is Asian (53%), mostly ethnic Chinese, ol-lowed by Latinos (34%). Non-Hispanic Whites, who once constituted themajority o the citys population, have declined in numbers over recentdecades, and at present they make up only 10% o the population.

Research has ound a lower level o neighborhood belonging in thestudy site compared with many other residential areas in Los Angeles(Ball-Rokeach et al., 2001), and anecdotal evidence points to a generallack o interest among the citys residents in becoming engaged in localpolitics. For example, the general municipal and school district electionsscheduled to take place in this city in November 2010 were both canceleddue to the lack o challengers to all fve incumbent City Council andSchool Board members up or reelection. The decision to ocus on thiscity was there ore based on a desire to identi y the specifc paths leadingto or working against civic engagement in this community and to o ersome insights that can be utilized by those interested in fnding ways topromote engagement in diverse communities.

methodS

A survey was conducted in the study area between November 7 andDecember 17, 2010. In addition to random-digit dialing, invitation post-cards were mailed out to addresses without listed phone numbers torecruit participants so that the survey would have a chance to reach


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residents who used cell phones only. The postcard carried messages inEnglish, Chinese, and Spanish that encouraged the recipient to call a toll-

ree 800 number to participate in the survey. 2 Among the 2,223 individuals contacted by or who contacted the sur-

vey interviewers, 512 did not meet the screening criteria o being at least18 years o age, having lived in the study area or at least two years,and sel -identi ying as o Chinese/Taiwanese, Latino, or Caucasian/non-Hispanic White ethnicity. Among the 1,711 qualifed respondents, theresponse rate was 24%, which was within the typical range or telephonesurveys. The fnal sample consisted o 152 Chinese, 154 Latinos, and 99Anglos. Among them, 50.6% were emale, and 21.2% were recruitedthrough postcard invitations. Although Anglos constituted only 10% o the areas population, they were oversampled to provide a su fcient sam-ple size or statistical analyses.

Each telephone interview lasted around 25 minutes and was adminis-tered in the respondents pre erred language (English, Mandarin, or Span-ish). A $20 supermarket gi t card or a donation o an equivalent amountto a charity o the respondents choice was o ered as an incentive orcompleting the interview.

m s s

Endogenous Variables . Items used to measure communication and civicengagement variables were adopted rom published CIT research (Ball-Rokeach et al., 2001; Kim & Ball-Rokeach, 2006a, 2006b). The meanand standard deviation o all variables are shown in Table 11.1.

Neighborhood Belonging. An eight-item belonging index was usedto measure respondents subjective attachment to their neighborhood andtheir objective neighborly behaviors. For the our subjective items, respon-dents were asked to indicate on a fve-point scale (1 = strongly disagreeand 5 = strongly agree) how much they agreed with statements suchas You enjoy meeting and talking with your neighbors. For the ourobjective items, participants were asked to provide a number to questionssuch as, How many o your neighbors do you know well enough to askthem to keep watch on your house or apartment? Numerical respons-es to the objective items were recoded so they also had values o 15

2Chinese is used to re er to the common written language or individuals livingin di erent provinces in Mainland China and Taiwan, whereas Mandarin is usedto re er to the o fcial spoken language o China and Taiwan, which is distinct

rom dialects like Cantonese, Hokkien, and Hakka.


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t b 1 1

. 1 .

m n n

S n

d

i

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f a e x o g n o u s n

e n

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v

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a o n g

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C h i n s ,

n

l i n

o r s p o n

n

s

A n g

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N =

9 9 )

C h i n e s e

( N =

1 5 2 )

L a t i n o s

( N =

1 5 4 )

V a r i a

b l e

M

S D

M

S D

M

S D

A g e

6 4

. 1 5

1 8

. 3 5

5 5

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1 6

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8

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5 8

, 3 5 2

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3 9

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, 5 9 1

. 6

3 2

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4 7

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3 5 , 5

7 9

. 7 2

E d u c a

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3

4 . 1

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1 . 8

1

3 . 6

8

1 . 6

0

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t i o n g e n e r a

t i o n

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6

0 . 9

1

1 . 3

2

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9

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6

0 . 9

5

L a n g u a g e

( s ) s p o

k e n a

t h o m e

2 . 6

9

0 . 6

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2 . 2

5

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4

R e s i

d e n t i a

l t e n u r e

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s t o r y

t e l l i n g

5 . 2

5 a

2 . 7

8

3 . 6

5 a b

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5

5 . 1

2 b

2 . 6

8

C o n n e c t i o

n t o c o m m u n

i t y

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t i o n s

0 . 9

5 c

1 . 0

0

0 . 4

7 c d

0 . 7

3

1 . 1

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7

C o n n e c t i o

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0 . 6

6 e

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2 e

0 . 8

1

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N e

i g h b o r

h o o

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0 . 7

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2 . 7

7 g h

0 . 7

8

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0 . 7

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l l e c

t i v e

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3 . 3

7

0 . 8

6

3 . 1

9 i

0 . 8

3

3 . 5

6 i

0 . 8

3

C i v i c p a r t

i c i p a

t i o n

3 . 6

6 j

2 . 0

6

2 . 0

0 j

1 . 8

7

2 . 9

3 j

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7

N o t e .

M e a n s w

i t h t h e s a m e s u p e r s c r i p t

d i e r a

t p < . 0

5 .


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(1 = no neighbor, 2 = one neighbor, 3 = two neighbors, 4 = threeneighbors, 5 = our or more neighbors). An acceptable Cronbachsalpha o .80 was obtained or the neighborhood belonging index, and acomposite variable was subsequently computed or each respondent byaveraging his or her scores on the eight items.

Collective E cacy. A seven-item collective e fcacy index was usedto measure respondents perceptions about their neighbors willingnessto engage in collective problem solving. Taking into consideration thatcollective e fcacy should be a task- and context-specifc construct (Samp-son, Raudenbush, & Earls 1997), the present index included fve itemsdeveloped by Kim and Ball-Rokeach (2006b) to assess e fcacy regardingsome o the most common neighborhood problems, as well as two itemsto measure e fcacy with regard to two problems identifed as top com-munity concerns by residents o the study area during prior ocus groupdiscussions. Respondents were asked to indicate on a fve-point scale (1= none and 5 = all) how many neighbors they eel they could counton to do something i there were dangerous potholes on the streetwhere they live, i the ee or an overnight parking permit in the city wasdoubled to $120 per year, and so on. An acceptable Cronbachs alpha o .83 was obtained or the collective e fcacy index, and a composite vari-able was subsequently computed or each respondent by averaging his orher scores on the seven items.

Civic Participation. A ten-item civic participation index was used toassess respondents involvement in a range o political, civic, and voluntaryactivities. Going beyond items pertaining to local political participation,the present scale also included questions to assess participation in moregeneral civic activities, such as volunteering or a social cause or neigh-borhood initiative. In each question, respondents were asked to indicatewhether they had engaged in the specifed political, civic, or voluntaryactivity during the past two years (0 = no and 1 = yes). To assesswhether the political and nonpolitical items represented the same under-lying construct, actor analysis was conducted to rotate actors with aneigen value o at least 1.00 to an orthogonal solution using the Viramaxmethod. A single actor was obtained ( eigen value = 2.92), and scale reli-ability was subsequently computed or the ten civic participation items.A ter obtaining an acceptable Cronbachs alpha o .72 or the civic par-ticipation index, a composite variable was computed or each respondentby adding his or her scores on the ten items.

Interpersonal Neighborhood Storytelling. Respondents intensityo interpersonal neighborhood storytelling was assessed through theirresponse to the question, How o ten do you have discussions with otherpeople about things happening in your neighborhood? The response wasgiven on a ten-point scale (1 = never and 10 = all the time).


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Connection to Community Organizations. Respondents were askedto name up to two organizations in eight di erent categories (e.g., sportor recreational, cultural or ethnic, religious or church-based, etc.) to whichthey or someone in their household belonged. Furthermore, they wereasked whether the organizations reported were located in the study area.Having a membership in each type o organization that was locally basedwas coded as 1, and a frmative responses to the eight organization cat-egories were summed up to create a composite score or each respondent.

Connection to Geo-ethnic Media. Participants scope o connectionto geo-ethnic media was assessed in a two-step process. First, respondentswere asked about their top two ways or staying on top o their commu-nity. I they identifed television, radio, newspapers, or the Internet as oneo the top two ways, they were asked whether the media outlets to whichthey connected were mainstream and commercial, publicly unded, or pro-duced or their ethnic group or their residential area (i.e., geo-ethnic).Respondents whose top two ways or staying on top o their communitydid not include geo-ethnic media were coded as 0, those with one o thetop two ways being geo-ethnic media were coded as 1, and respondentswith both o the two ways being geo-ethnic media were coded as 2.

e s v b s

Age. Respondents were asked to indicate the year in which they wereborn, and their age at the time o survey was calculated by subtractingtheir year o birth rom 2010.

Income. Respondents were asked to choose rom eight categories,ranging rom less than $15,000 to $100,000 or more, their house-hold income rom the previous year. Income was then trans ormed into aratio-level variable through mid-point assignment ollowed by a divisionby 1,000, with respondents earning $100,000 or more recoded as havingan annual income o $125,000.

Education. Participants were asked to indicate the highest level o education they had received based on seven categories (1 = middle schoolor less, 2 = some high school, 3 = high school graduate, 4 = somecollege or technical school, 5 = college graduate, 6 = some graduatestudy, 7 = graduate degree).

Residential Tenure. Respondents were asked to indicate how manyyears they had lived in the study area.

Immigration Generation. Immigration generation was assessed byasking respondents who in their amily frst came to the United States.


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Individuals reporting themselves or their spouse, sibling, child, niece, ornephew were coded as 1 (i.e., frst generation); those reporting their par-ents, aunt, or uncle were coded as 2 (i.e., second generation); respondentsreporting their grandparents were coded as 3 (i.e., third generation); andthose reporting their great grandparents or earlier were coded as 4 (i.e.,

ourth generation or more).English Pro ciency. Respondents were asked what language(s) are

usually spoken in their home, and this in ormation was used as a proxymeasure or English profciency. Respondents reporting speaking a lan-guage other than English only were coded as 1, those reporting speakingboth English and another language were coded as 2, and individualsspeaking English only were coded as 3.

a s s

One-way analyses o variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to investigatethe average level o connection to local storytelling mechanisms and civicengagement among di erent ethnic groups, with the signifcance level setat p < .05. In modeling civic engagement, the hypothesized relationshipsamong the variables o interest are summarized in Figure 11.1. Basedon Kim and Ball-Rokeachs (2006a) conceptualization, residential tenure,sociodemographic characteristics, and immigration-related variables areexogenous in the model, potentially shaping both connections to localcommunication mechanisms and the three dimensions o civic engagement.

Kim and Ball-Rokeach (2006a) hypothesize neighborhood belongingto have an indirect e ect on civic participation through collective e fcacyas well as a direct e ect. They suggest that belonging not only motivatesneighborhood-oriented action (Ball-Rokeach, 2001), but when residentshave a high level o belonging . . . belonging will activate participation evenmore intensively when it leads to increasing collective e fcacy (Kim &Ball-Rokeach, 2006a, p. 189). In contrast, based on established theory thatlinks e fcacy with behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980), collective e fcacy ishypothesized to have a direct e ect on civic participation. Although underideal circumstances, an integrated local storytelling network is representedby bidirectional paths between the communication variables, this scenariois rarely the case in reality (Ball-Rokeach et al., 2001; Kim & Ball-Rokeach,2006a). Consequently, bidirectional paths among the communication vari-ables are not included in the hypothesized model.

Data were frst screened using PRELIS 2, and no variable was oundto have a substantially skewed distribution. Consequently, LISREL 8.80


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was used to obtain separate estimates or each o the three subsamples.The goodness-o -ft o the hypothesized model to the observed data wasassessed in three ways. First, the chi-square ( 2) statistic was examined,

and a 2 to degrees-o - reedom (d ) ratio o 5 or smaller was considereda satis actory model ft. Second, the comparative ft index (CFI), whichcompares the hypothesized model with a null model speci ying no asso-ciation between any o the variables, was examined. A CFI .90 sug-gests an acceptable ft. Last, the standardized root mean squared residual(SRMR), which re ects the average discrepancy between the observed andhypothesized correlations among the variables, was inspected. An SRMR .08 suggests a satis actory ft.

In cases where any o these measures indicated a less than acceptable

ft, the theoretical model was revised based on the modifcation indices. Amodifcation was made when it was theoretically plausible, would resultin a large reduction in chi-square, and was linked to a path coe fcient

Age

Income

Education

ResidentialTenure

Immigration

generation

Englishprofciency

Neighborhooddissussion

Communityorg connection

Geo-ethnicmedia

connection

e1

e2

e3

e4

e5

e6

Neighborhoodbelonging

Collectivee fcacy

Civicparticipation

F 11.1. Hypothesized model.


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o considerable magnitude. The signifcance o individual parameters wasassessed using t tests with the signifcance level set at p < .05.

reSultS

anovas

RQ1 inquires whether residents o di erent ethnicities diverge in theirlevels o civic engagement and connection to local storytelling mechanisms.Results rom one-way ANOVAs indicated that all global di erences were

signifcant. Consequently, the Games-Howell method, which assumes nei-ther equal sample sizes nor equal variances across groups, was used toidenti y which ethnic groups di ered rom each other. These tests showedthat Chinese scored signifcantly lower on all communication and civicengagement variables compared with the other ethnic groups. In contrast,no signifcant di erence was ound between Anglos and Latinos exceptin civic participation, where Latinos scored signifcantly lower (see Table11.1).

p a s s

Modeling Civic Engagement among Chinese Residents. When the hypoth-esized model was ftted to the data, the CFI was high at .97, and theSRMR was low at .032. However, the 2 /d was slightly higher than 5(15.59/3), indicating a less-than-satis actory ft. An examination o themodifcation indices suggested the need to add one path rom geo-ethnicmedia connection to community organization connection, with the path

coe fcient being negative. This modifcation was in line with the argumentthat intense connection to ethnic media among new immigrants couldhave a negative impact on interest in local a airs and in socializing withdiverse others. Although adding a path in the opposite direction or allow-ing the error term o these two variables to correlate would result in areduction in 2 o the same magnitude, the chosen modifcation was moretheoretically justifable, and its resulting standardized path coe fcient waslarger in absolute value compared with path coe fcients resulting romthe other two potential modifcations.

A ter adding the path rom geo-ethnic media connection to commu-nity organization connection, all global ft indices became satis actory (CFI= .99, SRMR = .021, 2 /d = 4.57/2). An examination o the modifcation


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indices suggested that no other modifcation would signifcantly improvethe model ft. Thus, this revised model was estimated. Given that removingnonsignifcant paths did not result in a considerably worse model ft orchange the magnitude o the parameter estimates much, only signifcantpaths, their standardized coe fcients, and standard errors are presentedin Figure 11.2.

H1, H2, and H5 were rejected because age, income, and English prof-ciency were not ound to predict any o the civic engagement variables. H3and H4 were partially supported, as education and immigration generationwere both positively related to civic participation but not to belonging orcollective e fcacy. H6 was also partially supported because neighborhooddiscussion positively predicted neighborhood belonging and civic partici-pation. RQ2 and RQ3 inquired whether civic engagement was predictedby community organization connection and geo-ethnic media connection.Community organization connection was ound to be unrelated to any

Age

Income

Education

ResidentialTenure

Immigrationgeneration

Englishprofciency



Geo-ethnicmedia

connection

e1

e2

e3

e4

e5

e6


Collectivee fcacy

Civicparticipation

F 11.2. Paths to civic engagement among Chinese.

.22 (.07)

.24 (.01)

.17 (.21)

.35 (.00)

.16 (.00)

.30 (.03)

.19 (.09)

.34 (.07)

.63

.89

1.00

.21 (.16)

.30 (.05)

.41 (.02)

.18 (.10)

.80

1.00

.68


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o the civic engagement dimensions, whereas geo-ethnic media connectionnegatively predicted neighborhood belonging and civic participation.

Modeling Civic Engagement among Latinos. When the hypothesizedmodel was ftted to the data, the CFI was acceptable at .95, and the SRMRwas low at .047. However, the 2 /d was higher than 5 (20.74/3), indicat-ing a less-than-satis actory ft. An examination o the modifcation indicessuggested the need to allow the error term o neighborhood discussionand community organization connection to correlate, with the correlationbeing positive. Although adding a directional path rom neighborhooddiscussion to community organization connection or a path in the oppositedirection would result in a reduction in 2 o the same magnitude, it wasunclear which directional in uence was more theoretically plausible andshould be added frst. More requent neighborhood discussions might helpindividuals learn more about locally based community organizations andbecome involved in some o them. However, participation in communityorganizations might help individuals learn about local issues and motivatethem to discuss those issues with others. There was also the possibilitythat neighborhood discussion and community organization connectionwere in uenced by the same underlying constructs not accounted or bythe hypothesized model, such as extrovert personality traits. Given thoseconsiderations, allowing the errors to correlate was the pre erred modif-cation over inserting a directional path into the model.

A ter allowing the error term o neighborhood discussion and com-munity organization connection to correlate, all global ft indices becamesatis actory (CFI = 1.00, SRMR = .010, 2 /d = 1.09/2). An examinationo the modifcation indices suggested that no other modifcation wouldsignifcantly improve the model ft. Thus, this revised model was estimated.Given that removing nonsignifcant paths did not result in a considerablyworse model ft or change the magnitude o the parameter estimates much,only signifcant paths, their standardized coe fcients, and standard errorsare presented in Figure 11.3.

H1, H4, and H5 were rejected because age, immigration generation,and English profciency were not ound to predict any o the civic engage-ment variables. H2 and H3 were partially supported, as education andincome were both positively related to civic participation. H6 was alsopartially supported because neighborhood discussion positively predictedneighborhood belonging and civic participation. RQ2 and RQ3 inquiredwhether civic engagement was predicted by community organizationconnection and geo-ethnic media connection. Community organizationconnection positively predicted neighborhood belonging and civic partici-pation, whereas geo-ethnic media connection was not related to any o the civic engagement variables.


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Modeling Civic Engagement among Anglos. When the hypothesizedmodel was ftted to the data, all global ft indices were satis actory (CFI= .97, SRMR = .034, 2 /d = 8.90/3), and an examination o the modif-cation indices suggested that no modifcation would signifcantly improvethe model ft. There ore, the hypothesized model was estimated. Figure11.4 shows only signifcant paths, their standardized coe fcients, and stan-dard errors in the model. Even though removing the nonsignifcant pathsdid not change the magnitude o the parameter estimates much, it didresult in a considerably worse global ft (CFI = .89, SRMR = .090, 2 / d = 61.53/41), possibly due to the relatively small sample size ( N = 99).Consequently, the parameters estimates or the Anglo sample need to beinterpreted with more caution.

H1, H3, H4, and H5 were rejected because age, income, immigra-tion generation, and English profciency were not ound to predict anyo the civic engagement variables. H2 was partially supported, as educa-tion was positively related to civic participation. H6 was also partially

Age

Income

Education

ResidentialTenure

Immigration

generation

Englishprofciency



Geo-ethnicmedia

connection

e1

e2

e3

e4

e5

e6


Collectivee fcacy

Civicparticipation

.22 (.11)

.24 (.05)

.25 (.14)

1.00

0.90

1.00

.25 (.14)

.28 (.06)

.16 (.05)

.46 (.02)

.72

.76

.65

.34

.20 (.00)

.49 (.08)

F 11.3. Paths to civic engagement among Latinos.


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supported because neighborhood discussion positively predicted neighbor-hood belonging and civic participation. RQ2 and RQ3 inquired whethercivic engagement was predicted by community organization connectionand geo-ethnic media connection. Community organization connectionpositively predicted civic participation, whereas geo-ethnic media connec-tion was not related to any o the civic engagement variables.

diSCuSSion and ConCluSion

This chapter investigated civic engagement patterns among individualso di erent ethnicities co-inhabiting the same incorporated city and the

orces shaping these patterns. Contrary to previous research fndings onminorities lower levels o civic engagement, Anglo and Latino residentsin the researched neighborhood did not di er on neighborhood belongingand collective e fcacy levels, even though Anglos remained more active

Age

Income

Education

ResidentialTenure

Immigration

generation

Englishprofciency



Geo-ethnicmedia

connection

e1

e2

e3

e4

e5

e6


Collectivee fcacy

Civicparticipation

.21 (.01)

.26 (.00)

.43 (.02)

.26 (.10)

.42 (.03).33 (.11)

.24 (.20)

.82

.27.89

.58

.22 (.07)

.23 (.16).93

1.00

.93

F 11.4. Paths to civic engagement among Anglos.


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participants in civic activities. In contrast, the Chinese residents scoredsignifcantly lower on all three dimensions o civic engagement comparedwith Anglos and Latinos.

When examining the paths to civic engagement in each ethnic group,the only consistent associations observed across groups were the posi-tive in uence o neighborhood discussion and education over civic par-ticipation, as well as the positive e ect o neighborhood discussion onbelonging.

Among Chinese, individuals reporting higher levels o neighborhoodbelonging on average had a longer immigration history. Those with highercivic participation levels tended to have a longer immigration history andresidential tenure, but they reported a weaker connection to geo-ethnicmedia or local news and in ormation. The positive e ect o immigrationgeneration on belonging and civic participation supports the argumentthat or newer immigrants, the process o socialization into Americancivic norms and the development o local attachment might take someyears to achieve. Although these same positive e ects were not observedamong Latinos, this fnding could be explained by the act that Latinoresidents in the study area on average have a longer immigration his-tory compared with Chinese. Consequently, Latino residents might havealready undergone substantial civic socialization and developed consider-able local attachment.

In contrast, the negative e ect o connection to geo-ethnic media oncivic participation among Chinese could be accounted or by the actthat Chinese residents mostly connected to ethnically oriented rather thangeographically oriented media or local news and in ormation. In act,research participants who identifed geo-ethnic newspapers as one o theirtop two ways or staying in ormed about their community were askedto name up to two newspapers to which they connected or local news.Among the Chinese respondents, more than two thirds named one o thetwo large-scale Chinese-language newspapers owned by overseas parentcompanies. On the other hand, the most requently mentioned newspaperby the Latino and Anglo respondents were the same English-languagenewspaper published monthly by the Chamber o Commerce in the studyarea. Given previous research fndings on the tendency o Los Angeles-based ethnic Chinese media to shi t the audiences gaze away rom locala airs to state, national, international, or home country news (Lin &Song, 2006), it is not surprising that Chinese respondents largely ethnicrather than geo- media connection negatively a ected civic participa-tion. It is also not surprising that Latinos and Anglos connection to theChamber newspaper did not have any impact on civic engagement, as thecontent o this publication tends to be promotional o local businesses and


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personalities and does not include critical coverage o local issues (Chenet al., 2012). In other words, it appears that the geo-ethnic media towhich the respondents connected do not engage in much local storytellingthat acilitates civic engagement. This fnding is un ortunate given geo-ethnic medias potential to raise awareness about local issues, motivateneighborhood discussion about these issues, and connect individuals toorganizational resources in their area that can be utilized in communityproblem solving (Matsaganis et al., 2011). The challenge, then, is orpolicymakers or local institutions to fnd ways to encourage existing localand ethnic media outlets to engage in more local storytelling and criticalcoverage. Residents or community organizations can also capitalize on thelower barriers to entry o new media and create their own local newsplat orms to acilitate engagement.

Among Latinos, individuals participating in more locally basedcommunity organizations on average had higher levels o neighbor-hood belonging. Those reporting higher levels o civic participation alsotended to participate in more locally based community organizations, bewealthier, and have a stronger sense o neighborhood belonging. Thepositive e ect o connection to community organizations on belongingand civic participation supports the argument that participation in com-munity organizations provides individuals with the necessary knowledge,skills, motivations, and belie s to engage civically. It is worth noting thatLatinos with lower English profciency were connected to more communityorganizations in the study area. This fnding could be partially explainedby the large number o connections to churches and religious organizationsreported by Latinos. The ready availability o Spanish-language servicesmakes churches a nonintimidating environment or those not uent inEnglish to socialize with others and participate in various activities. Con-sequently, e orts to promote civic engagement among Latinos, especiallythose con ronting linguistic barriers, would do well by reaching out toand collaborating with churches and other community organizations.

Among Anglos, individuals reporting higher levels o civic participa-tion tended to be younger and participate in more locally based commu-nity organizations. They also reported a stronger sense o neighborhoodbelonging but a lower sense o collective e fcacy. The negative e ect o age on civic participation is not surprising given that Anglo respondentswere considerably older than Chinese and Latinos, with the average age

or Anglo respondents being 64.15 years. Research has suggested thatthe positive relationship between age and civic participation in adulthoodtends to reverse among the very elderly due to their reduced mobility(Uhlaner et al., 1989), and this fnding could well be the case with manyAnglo residents in the study area. Another curious observation pertains


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to the negative impact o collective e fcacy on civic participation. Onepossible explanation is that Anglo residents eel e fcacious but are none-theless resistant toward participating with newcomers who are displac-ing them. O course, interviews with Anglos in the study area need to beconducted in the uture to identi y the actual reasons behind this negativerelationship, and it also needs to be urther tested out in other communi-ties where the old timers are being replaced by newcomers.

Overall, it seemed that local storytelling mechanisms in the studyarea unctioned separately rather than in an integrated ashion. The onlyexception was the positive association between the requency o neigh-borhood discussion and the intensity o participation in locally basedcommunity organizations among Latinos. Taken together with the fnd-ings on the di erent types o geo-ethnic media to which residents o di erent ethnicities connected, the local storytelling telling networks inthe study area appeared to be both ethnically bounded and ragmentedwithin each ethnic group. These patterns could well be observed in othermultiethnic communities, and such patterns are detrimental to the endo civic engagement according to research. However, unlike sociodemo-graphic actors that are not malleable to change, the present study andother research (Chen et al., 2012) have outlined a number o strategiesto connect various local storytelling agents and bridge the ethnicallybound storytelling networks.

Furthermore, this study has demonstrated the utility and necessityo scaling down rom national or state-level analyses to community-levelstudies in order to obtain a contextualized understanding o how ethnicityshapes civic engagement and its driving orces in a particular geographi-cal community. This type o understanding is more relevant and use ul

or developing policy recommendations or interventions that would workwith the existing communication in rastructure and contextual actors in aparticular area to acilitate civic engagement. The declining trend in civicengagement might just start to turn i more scholars, policymakers, andother stakeholders engage in this type o geographically and ethnicallysensitive investigation into the civic health o local communities.

aCknowledgmentS

This chapter is based on research conducted by the USC MetamorphosisProject and the Civic Engagement and Journalism Initiative in Los Ange-les County, Cali ornia. The Annenberg Foundation and USC AnnenbergSchool or Communication and Journalism provided the unding or thisstudy.


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