Being both – A European and a national citizen? Comparing young people’s identification with Europe and their home country across eight European countries^*

* The data set is available on the repository zenodo (zenodo.org) and can be found under the following doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1000470.

Abstract

It is a well-established fact that forming a mature and coherent political identity is one developmental task in adolescence and young adulthood. However, given different degrees of commitment on the regional, national, and European level, the question remains whether young people’s identification varies among those spheres? Drawing on data from the European Catch-EyoU-project, it was the goal of this study to examine whether young people can be classified according to their identification toward their home country and Europe and how these types are associated with age, gender, country as well as political interest, tolerance, and political participation. The study is based on adolescents and young adults from the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Estonia, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden (N = 9339; Mage = 19.62; 59.1% female). Cluster analysis revealed five types of young people’s identification with country and Europe which showed significant associations between group membership and tolerance, political interest, and participation. The implications of distinguishing types of identification and their associations with political outcomes are discussed.

Keywords:

• National identity
• European identity
• EU
• youth
• political engagement
• tolerance

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Petr Macek, Frosso Motti-Stefanidi, Peter Noack, Elvira Ciognani, Shakuntala Banaji, Erik Amna, Isabel Menezes and Veronika Kalmus for the data which were collected by their team to be used in this paper.

Notes

* The data set is available on the repository zenodo (zenodo.org) and can be found under the following doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1000470.