Civic and Political Participation of European Youth: Fair Measurement in Different Cultural and Social Contexts

Abstract

Civic and political participation (CPP) is often routinely operationalized through the same questions, as can be found in many related studies. While questions can be adapted in accordance with the research purposes, their psychometric properties are rarely addressed. This study examines the potential methodological problems in the measurement of CPP, such as the conflict between construct validity and measurement invariance, as well as unequal item functioning between some groups of people. We use the Rasch model to test 18 CPP questions for their relevance for the European youth population and to study differential item functioning between groups based on (1) age, (2) gender, (3) economic satisfaction, and (4) country of living. We discovered that CPP questions are strongly connected with the cultural and social context and can discriminate against some groups of people. The results demonstrate the need to develop more culturally responsive methods to study CPP and the paper offers suggestions on how to do so.

Gender differences in civic and political engagement and participation among Italian young people

“…This research is based on data collected within the H2020 project: "CATCH-EyoU. Pro cesses in Youth's Construction of Active EU Citizenship" (Cicognani et al, 2019). In the present study, we recruited 1792 young people living in Italy.…”

“…For this research, we used 16 items from the Civic and Political Participation scale (CPP; Enchikova et al, 2019;Noack & Macek, 2017). According to Cicognani et al (2017), the items of this scale assess four forms of participation: online participation, political participation, civic participation, and activist participation.…”

Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the sense of community responsibility scale

“…The CPP scale was used (Enchikova et al, 2019). It consists of 18 questions that measure conventional and nonconventional types of political and civic participation, such as civic volunteering, political actions, protest activities, and economic actions.…”

Evaluation of an Active Citizenship Intervention Based on Youth-Led Participatory Action Research

“…We used the Civic and Political Participation scale (CPP scale; Enchikova et al, 2019). This scale has been deemed valid for use among youth populations (Enchikova et al, 2019).…”

“…We used the Civic and Political Participation scale (CPP scale; Enchikova et al, 2019). This scale has been deemed valid for use among youth populations (Enchikova et al, 2019). The CPP scale includes 18 questions that cover conventional and nonconventional types of civic and political participation at the EU level, such as political actions, protest activities, economic actions, civic volunteering, expression of personal opinion off-line and online.…”