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

Year 2016, , 301 - 330, 01.09.2016

Sibel Akın Ömer Çalışkan , Cennet Engin-demir

https://doi.org/10.14812/cuefd.284302

Cited By: 3

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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