Engaging youth in positive citizenship activities has been the most heavily studied area of positive citizenship antecedents. Overall, research has demonstrated relatively strong associations between being engaged in civic activities in high school and later civic involvement. Smith (1999) analyzed the National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988 (NELS) data to attempt to determine the association of engagement in activities in high school and political participation in adulthood. NELS is an ongoing nationally representative, longitudinal study that has tracked adolescents from eighth grade in 1988 until two years after high school in 1994. Smith found that previous extracurricular voluntary participation was most predictive of future political participation (e.g., registering to vote, voting and volunteering in political organizations). Smith also found that parental involvement and youth's sense of control and confidence were partially predictive of extracurricular activity participation and civic virtue in high school.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Senior Class of 1972, Hanks (1981) explored the relationship between youth participation in voluntary activities and participation by those adolescents in adulthood. He found that extracurricular activity participation during the senior year of high school was related, two years later, to more political campaign participation, to more discussion of political issues and to a higher likelihood of voting. This finding remains after controlling for social class, academic performance and self-esteem. The indirect relationship goes through volunteer participation in adulthood. The strength of the association is greatest for participation in activities that are a means to an end (e.g., honorary clubs, vocational education clubs, school newspaper), as opposed to activities that are an end in themselves (e.g., athletic teams). This finding has been replicated in an analysis of Monitoring the Future (combining data from 1988 to 1993), a cross-sectional and nationally representative dataset of high school seniors (Youniss, McLellan, Su & Yates, 1999). After controlling for several background variables such as religion, gender, socioeconomic status and minority status, the researchers found that frequency of community service was strongly and significantly related to participation in conventional political activities (whether had or were likely to vote, work on a political campaign, contribute money to a political campaign, and write a letter to an office holder) and unconventional political activities (whether had or were likely to boycott some organizations or participate in a public demonstration for some cause).