The Relationship Between School Engagement and Civic Beliefs and Behaviors of Young Hong Kong People

• In Event: Modeling Youth Development: Empirical and Conceptual Advances

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between school and civic engagement of young Hong Kong people. The sample comprised 15218, 6th – 12th graders. School engagement was assessed by a self-rated questionnaire against the affective, behavioral and cognitive domains. Students’ civic engagement was measured by the ICCS student questionnaire. Results of hierarchical modelling confirmed that school engagement was significant in predicting civic engagement. The level of students’ civic engagement can be attributed to their overall school engagement by 30%. The predicting power of affective school engagement on all factors of civic engagement is considerably weaker than that of cognitive and behavioral factors and in opposite direction. Cognitive school engagement is more predictive than behavioral school engagement on all civic engagement factors.

Authors

• Celeste Yuet Mui Yuen, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

• Alan Cheung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong