The present study
In the present study, we examine how civic engagement in the form of ideology (social engagement, social conscience) and civic action are related to trajectories of mental health among young Norwegians. Most of the research that has been done on the topic has used a variable-centered approach, where averaged parameters have been estimated for all individuals in the study sample (With the person-centered approach, individuals in one group are more like each other than individuals between groups. Accordingly, we examine how various aspects of civic engagement measured at different time points are related to trajectories of mental health distress and mental well-being. By so doing we do not only assess how mental health among young Norwegians develop over time, but we also investigate how the different trajectories differ from each other in terms of civic engagement. We hypothesize that higher levels of civic engagement would be associated with the most optimal trajectory of mental health.Furthermore, we investigate the influence of socio-economic status and gender on mental health trajectories as well as control for age differences, which have sometimes been found to be related to both civic engagement and mental health (