Civic Engagement among University Students: Case of a Turkish Public University

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of certain background variables (gender, attending student club, newspaper reading, home residence, level of mother education, and level of father education) on university students’ level of civic engagement in university setting. The study also aimed to explore if there were any significant differences among the three dimensions of civic engagement: students’ activism, exercising rights, and interest in politics. The study employed causal comparative design and the sample involved 1074 undergraduate students who were selected by stratified sampling from all faculties of a Turkish public university. The data were collected by a self-developed Civic Engagement Scale and analyzed by Two-Way MANOVA and One-Way Repeated ANOVA analyses. One-Way Repeated ANOVA results indicated that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of three dimensions of civic engagement. More specifically, the level of students’ activism was significantly lower than the level of students’ exercising their rights and the level of their interest in politics. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the level of students’ exercising their rights and interest in politics. Moreover, Two-Way MANOVA results showed that all selected variables had a significant effect on the three dimensions of students’ civic engagement.

Keywords

• Civic engagement,Democracy,Higher education,Undergraduate students,Turkey

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