IEA Civic Education Study, 1999: Civic Knowledge and Engagement Among 14-Year-Olds in 23 European Countries, 2 Latin American Countries, Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States (ICPSR 21661)

Principal Investigator(s): Humboldt University of Berlin; University of Maryland-College Park

Summary: The IEA Civic Education Study (known as CIVED) is an international assessment of the civic knowledge and skills of 14-year-olds (8th and 9th graders) in 28 countries. Data were collected in 1999 under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in Amsterdam. Begun in 1958, IEA is a consortium of educational and social science research institutes in more than 50 countries. The IEA's International Steering Committee (Universi... (more info)

Series: IEA Civic Education Study Series

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Humboldt University of Berlin, and University of Maryland-College Park. IEA Civic Education Study, 1999: Civic Knowledge and Engagement Among 14-Year-Olds in 23 European Countries, 2 Latin American Countries, Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States. ICPSR21661-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-05-02. doi:10.3886/ICPSR21661.v1

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR21661.v1

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This survey was funded by:

• International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement
• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany)
• William T. Grant Foundation

Summary:   The IEA Civic Education Study (known as CIVED) is an international assessment of the civic knowledge and skills of 14-year-olds (8th and 9th graders) in 28 countries. Data were collected in 1999 under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in Amsterdam. Begun in 1958, IEA is a consortium of educational and social science research institutes in more than 50 countries. The IEA's International Steering Committee (University of Maryland, College Park) and an international Technical Advisory Group guided the research. The International Coordinating Center (Humboldt University of Berlin) coordinated the day-to-day operations and the IEA Data Processing Center (Hamburg, Germany) processed the data. The Study's National Research Coordinators developed an octagon model that guided the two phases of the study, the first phase a more qualitative set of case studies in 24 countries and the second phase a test and survey of students in 29 countries. This model gave special attention to macrosystem elements such as the country's history of democracy, transnational position, economy, and media. It also delineated ways in which civic education goals are carried into practice, especially the role of the formal community, informal community, school, peer group, and family. Publications from the study have addressed each of these theories and approaches and have been authored by educational researchers, civic education specialists, comparative scholars, political scientists, and psychologists. The following countries took part: Australia, Belgium (French-speaking), Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, 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. The sizes of the nationally-representative samples ranged from 2,076 students tested in Belgium (French-speaking) to 5,688 students tested in Chile. Civic achievement was measured by a total civic knowledge scale composed of two subscales: civic content and skills. Civic content refers to knowledge of civic concepts such as the characteristics of democracies, and civic skills refer to the interpretative skills needed to understand civic-related communication (e.g., to make sense of a political cartoon or an election leaflet). In addition, survey items measured students' concepts of democracy, citizenship, and government, attitudes toward civic issues such as immigrants' or women's rights, trust in governmental institutions, and several types of expected political and community participation. Students also answered questions pertaining to their background characteristics, their organizational participation, and the climate of their school and classroom. Item responses gathered from approximately 95,000 students in total and 22 scale scores developed with confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory are included on the file. Questionnaires also solicited background information from school principals and teachers.

Subject Terms:   citizenship, civics, classroom environment, democracy, government, international, political participation, private schools, public schools

Geographic Coverage:   Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Global, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United States

Time Period:  

• 1999

Date of Collection:  

• 1999--2000

Unit of Observation:   individual

Universe:   The universe was comprised of 14-year-old students in each of the following 28 countries: Australia, Belgium (French-speaking), Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, 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

Data Types:   survey data

Data Collection Notes:

To compute Sampling variances, means, percentages, regression coefficients and their JRR standard errors, users are provided with SPSS macros. The four Jackknife SPSS macros (JackGen.sps, JackReg.sps, SampleJackGen.sps, and SampleJackREG.sps) are summarized in a single PDF file called doc21661_all.pdf. Users need to copy and paste the required macros and to run them as an SPSS syntax file.

The User's Manual and Reports documentation are provided by the data producer as Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

Sample:   The sampling consisted of a two-stage stratified cluster sample design where the first stage consisted of a sample of schools that had been stratified in a number of countries. The second stage consisted of a single civic education class selected from the target grade in sampled schools. It was also permissible to add a third stage where students were sampled within classrooms. The sizes of the nationally-representative samples ranged from 2,076 students tested in Belgium (French-speaking) to 5,688 students tested in Chile.

Weight:   Three weights are available in the CIVED dataset, all of which are designed to ensure national representation of the sample. The Total Weight (TOTWGT) sums to the population of 14-year-olds in the population of each country in 1999. The House Weight (HOUSEWGT) is a normalized version of the Total Weight that sums to the sample size in each country. The Senate Weight (SENWGT) sums to 1,000 in each country, and allows each country to be given equal weight in analysis while still retaining national representation. Further detail about the creation of these weights can be found in Chapter 6 of Schulz, W., and Sibberns, H., IEA Civic Education Study Technical Report, Amsterdam: IEA, 2004.

Mode of Data Collection:   self-enumerated questionnaire

Extent of Processing:  ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

• Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Original ICPSR Release:  2008-05-02

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