The Good Samaritan

Can you take a non-civic-minded teen and turn him into a do-gooder?

According to a study in the journal Political Psychology, it's possible. Researchers at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., studied two groups of Boston-area students at a high school that instituted a community service requirement for graduation. One set of kids graduated just before the requirement was in place. A second cohort graduated one or two years after the new policy was enacted.

The study found teenagers who were already community-minded were unaffected by the new mandate. But the more self-interested teenagers tended to develop a willingness to donate their time to charity as well as a greater political awareness.

The study is one of the first to prove that community service—required by 25 percent of U.S. public high schools—fosters civic engagement.