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Latino Adolescents’ Civic Development in the United States: Research Results from the IEA Civic Education Study

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Abstract

Many studies have reported gaps between Latino and non-Latino adolescents in academic and political outcomes. The current study presents possible explanations for such gaps, both at the individual and school level. Hierarchical linear modeling is employed to examine data from 2,811 American ninth graders (approximately 14 years of age) who had participated in the IEA Civic Education study. Analyses of large data bases enable the consideration of individual characteristics and experiences, as well as the context of classrooms and schools. In comparison with non-Latino students, Latino adolescents report more positive attitudes toward immigrants’ rights but have lower civic knowledge and expected civic participation. These differences were apparent even when controlling for language, country of birth, and political discussions with parents. School characteristics that explain a portion of this gap include open classroom climate and time devoted to study of political topics and democratic ideals. Results are discussed within the framework of developmental assets and political socialization. Implications for educational policy and ways to use large data sets are also discussed.

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Notes

  1. The countries testing the grade in which the majority of 14-year-olds are enrolled in the IEA Civic Education Study were Australia, Belgium (French speaking), Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. In the United States, ninth graders were tested in October, and the mean age of the sample was 14.7 years.

  2. In each set, all level 2 predictors were centered on their grand mean, with the exception of whether the school had high or low Latino enrollment. This was done to facilitate interpretation of the intercept as the average score for schools with low Latino enrollment, considering all other variables at their averages. Additionally, all level 1 variables were entered centered on their grand mean. This allows for the effects of these individual variables to be completely addressed both within and across schools. (Had the variables been group-mean centered, individual variables would have only controlled for the variation within schools that could be attributed to these predictors.) Because of this centering, however, it is important to remember that the addition of individual predictors can influence school predictors. What follows should not be considered separate but concurrent analyses of individual and average scores of knowledge, voting expectations, and immigrant attitudes. Rather, they should be considered singular analyses providing pictures of how school characteristics and individual experiences simultaneously impact the civic development of young people.

  3. In order to facilitate the modeling of the gap between Latino and non-Latino students, Latino ethnicity was centered on its group mean, rather than its grand mean, when entered into the analysis.

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Acknowledgments

The collection of data for the IEA Civic Education Study in the United States was supported by the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Some of the analysis reported here was supported by the William T. Grant Foundation and by the Carnegie Corporation of New York through CIRCLE (the Center for Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). The authors are grateful for comments on early versions to Fernando Reimers and to participants in the Workshop on Multilevel Models of Civic Engagement (held in May 2006 at the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Political Psychology). The full international data set (including scales and documentation) is available on a CD-Rom (see information about ordering a free copy on http://www.wam.umd.edu/∼iea). Information about obtaining the U.S. data set can be obtained from http://www.nces.ed.gov/surveys/cived.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Development, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Judith Torney-Purta, Carolyn H. Barber & Britt Wilkenfeld

Authors
  1. Judith Torney-Purta
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  2. Carolyn H. Barber
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  3. Britt Wilkenfeld
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Correspondence to Judith Torney-Purta.

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Professor of Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. Her major research interests include the development of social and civic attitudes among adolescents across nations and the political engagement of college students. She received the Decade of Behavior Research Award in Democracy in 2005

Doctoral Candidate in Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, specializing in Educational Psychology. Her major research interests include modeling and other techniques suitable for analyzing large data sets, and also gifted and talented students

Doctoral Student in Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, specializing in Developmental Science. A former Peace Corps volunteer, her major research interests include positive youth development among minority adolescents

Appendices

Appendix A

Summary of variables

Outcome variables

Civic knowledge: Total civic knowledge scale, comprised of both content knowledge and interpretative skills items (IRT: see Schulz and Sibberns, 2004). International Mean = 100, SD=20.

Expectations of informed voting: Two-item IRT scale (Husfeldt et al., 2005; Schulz and Sibberns, 2004). International Mean = 10, SD=2.

Positive attitudes toward immigrants’ rights: Five-item scale of individual’s attitudes toward political and social rights of immigrants (IRT: see Schulz and Sibberns, 2004). International Mean = 10, SD=2.

Latino ethnicity predictors

Latino ethnicity: Student’s report that they are of Latino ethnicity (recoded from national options: 1=yes; 0=no).

High Latino school: School has more Latino students in the school’s sampled class than average across all schools in the sample. Created from aggregated student data (recoded 1=high Latino concentration; 0 = low Latino concentration).

Individual covariate predictors

Not born in country of test: Student’s report that they were not born in the United States; i.e., that they are a first-generation immigrant (recoded from part 2, item 4: 1=not born in U.S.; 0=born in U.S.).

Speak language of test: Student’s report that they always speak the language of the test (English) at home (recoded from part 2, item 6: 1=yes; 0=no).

Home background

Read news in the newspaper: Reports that they read about national news in the newspaper (recoded from item L7: 1=yes; 0=no).

Discuss political topics with parents: Composite scale of frequency with which students discuss topics with their parents from items L2, L5: Mean = 0, SD=1.

* Suburban locale: Location in the suburbs (recoded from national option in school questionnaire: 1=in suburbs; 0=in urban or rural area).

School variables

Perception of Open classroom climate: Individual student perception that their classroom is open to discussion of political topics (IRT: Schulz and Sibberns, 2004). International Mean = 10, SD=2.

Studies political topics in the classroom: Individual studied topics related to national politics in social studies class (from latent class analysis of national options items: 1 = likely to have studied these topics; 0 = unlikely to have studied these topics).

* Teachers’ use of interactive activities: Teacher questionnaire report of the extent to which they use activities in their class that require student interaction, such as role-playing or group reports (from confirmatory factor analysis of teacher items I2, I5, and I6). Mean = 0, SD=1. Missing data are imputed by taking the average score from schools from the same locale (urban/suburban/rural) and region (northeast/southeast/central/west).

* Teachers’ use of official materials in planning: Teacher questionnaire reports of the importance of official curriculum requirements in planning civics classes (recoded from confirmatory factor analysis of teacher items G1 and G2: 1=important; 0=not important). Missing data are imputed randomly, while preserving the ratio of teachers who do use official materials to those who do not.

* Average perception of open classroom climate: School average of students’ perceptions of an open classroom climate for discussion (aggregated from student IRT).

* Average parent education: School average of students’ reports of their mothers’ and fathers’ education (aggregated from part 2, item 12 of student survey). Mean = 0, SD=1.

* Level 2 variable

Note: Cases with missing data on student-level variables were deleted from the analysis on an analysis-by-analysis basis.

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Torney-Purta, J., Barber, C.H. & Wilkenfeld, B. Latino Adolescents’ Civic Development in the United States: Research Results from the IEA Civic Education Study. J Youth Adolescence 36, 111–125 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9121-y

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