Since understanding how immigrant young adults engage with civic society over time is critical to understanding and fostering healthy development and healthy democracies, the current study examined how civic engagement and antisocial attitudes/behavior of Somali young adult immigrants (ages 18–30, N = 498) in four North American regions co-occur, and change over time.
Using latent transition analyses, this study examined latent classes of young adult males and females in relation to political and non-political civic engagement and dimensions of antisocial attitudes/behavior and stability of these classes over 1 year. The analysis identified distinct latent classes that remained consistent over time. Rates and patterns in latent class transitions varied along civically engaged/antisocial dimensions and also by gender. The study concluded that antisocial attitudes/behavior can coexist with civic engagement. For males, sense of belonging to both Somali and American/Canadian communities was associated with lower levels of antisocial attitudes/behavior. Movement away from or into antisocial attitudes/behavior differed by gender and could happen either in the presence or absence of civic engagement. (publisher abstract modified)