Education on population matters in Europe: results from a comparative survey among students in five European countries

Abstract

In 1996–1997, within the framework of the European Observatory for Population Education and Information, a comparative survey was conducted among students in final classes of secondary education in several European countries. On the one hand, the survey attempted to assess the effects of education on population in terms of knowledge acquired; the issues addressed in the questionnaire pertained to knowledge of demographic facts and trends (such as the ageing of Western societies and immigration). On the other hand it tried to ascertain students' opinions on demographic trends. What are young people's views on intergenerational solidarity, how tolerant are they towards immigrants, what are their views on recent changes in family structures? This knowledge is important since it is young people's attitudes and future behaviour that will help to shape both the social tissue and the economic prosperity of the European and world population. In this article we present a comparative analysis of survey results obtained in five European countries. We examined the question whether knowledge acquired in the course of scolarisation influences opinions. The results evidence a significant relationship between knowledge of the migrants' issue and attitudes of tolerance towards migrants. By means of multivariate analyses, the impact of factors such as social origin, study orientation and gender on both students' knowledge and attitudes, are investigated. We conclude that adequate educational training on population issues can have a significant positive impact on attitudes of tolerance.

Keywords:

• Demography
• Population education
• Knowledge
• Opinions
• Attitudes
• Demography teaching
• Educational improvement
• Europe
• Young people
• Immigrants
• The elderly

Notes

1. As from 1971 in Belgium, for example, educational objectives were pursued such as postponement of selection or mixed ability classrooms.

2. Original members were: the University René Descartes (Paris), the Institute for Population Research (IRP, Rome), the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI, The Hague), the Charles University (Prague), the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED, Paris), the Population and Family Study Centre (CBGS, Brussels) and the National Centre for Social Research (Athens).

3. With the exception of some questions pertaining to enumerating specific countries.

4. (i) the students' general knowledge on population issues (population sizes in the world, in the European Union and in their own country; fertility and life expectancy in major world regions, population dynamics, sustainable development….); their knowledge of the demographic transition and the historical growth pattern of the world population. (ii) Their knowledge and perception of the issue of population ageing and intergenerational solidarity; their understanding of the demographic causes of ageing; their knowledge on the proportions of elderly and population age structure; their perception of the rights of older generations; their views on pensioning, on housing. (iii) Their knowledge on migration flows, the number of immigrants in their country and their opinion on the presence of immigrants; the opinion questions pertained to the right of free movement and settlement of citizens of the Member States of the European Union, the societal position of migrants and the students' perception of the adaptability of different immigrant groups to the society of the receiving country. (iv) Their knowledge and perception of changes in family structures, their attitudes on marriage and the family. The comparable part in the respective questionnaire was restricted to a question on the causes of the decline in fertility in post‐war generations, and an opinion question about major changes in family structures of the past decades.

5. The knowledge items included in the total score calculation are: population size of the world; growth pattern of the world population since 1700; demographic transition; ranking of regions according to number of children per woman; ranking of regions according to life expectancy; average number of children in five regions of the world; average life expectancy in five regions; most populous country in EU, least populous country in EU; population size of the EU; population size of own country; age structure of own country; causes of ageing population; countries of origin of migrants present in country; first country of origin of migrants; percentage of immigrants in country; definition of sustainable development.

6. Regression analysis is a method of analysis that enables to quantify the relationship between two or more variables. A mathematical model is built, which determines the values of parameters for a function that cause the function to best fit a set of data observations that you provide. In multiple regression a straight line is fitted to a number of points. The general purpose of multiple regression is to learn more about the relationship between several independent or predictor variables and a dependent or criterion variable. Multiple regression can establish that a set of independent variables explains a proportion of the variance in a dependent variable at a significant level (significance test of R²), and can establish the relative predictive importance of the independent variables (comparing beta weights). The predictive power of certain characteristics is thus determined.

7. In the analyses carried out separately for the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, it was shown that the different variables contribute in a similar way to explaining the variation in the dependent variables. In other words, the additional effects of each of the subsets were comparable to the effects in the original analysis. Considering these indicative results, it can be assumed that the contribution of these variables is very similar to their contribution in the other countries.

8. Appendix: Scale‐construction of ‘solidarity’ and ‘tolerance’

‘Solidarity towards the elderly’ α = .5448

1.	‘The elderly should make room for their younger colleagues on the labour market’
2.	‘It is the children's duty to take care of their elderly parents’
3.	‘The elderly have the same right to labour as the young’

‘Tolerance towards migrants’ α = .9914

1.	‘Migrants have the right to keep their cultural identity’
2.	‘Migrants must adapt to the culture and value system of the receiving country’
3.	‘Migrants cause an increase in criminality’
4.	‘Migrants help to maintain the level of the population of the receiving country’
5.	‘Migrants contribute positively to mixing of cultures’
6.	‘Migrants cause unemployment among the population of the receiving country’
7.	‘Migrants should have voting rights in local elections’
8.	‘Migration policy must aim at return of migrants to their countries of origin’
9.	‘Migrants have the same rights to housing, education and labour’
10.	‘Mixing of young migrants and autochthonous young people in schools is positive’