Promoting participation at a time of social and political turmoil: what is the impact of children’s and young people’s city councils?

Figures & data

Table 1. Data collection and participants.

Strategies	Participants	n
Pre-test and post-test questionnaires	Students	112
Individual interviews	Students	12
Focus-group interviews	Students	12 (3x4)
Focus group	Teachers	3 (1x3)
Focus group	Project managers	2 (1x2)

Table 2. Main characteristics of the participant students.

School			Students				Suburban area (Idescat, n.d.)
ID	Type	Level	Age (mean^a)	Boys	Girls	Total	% of declared unemployment (2012)^b	% of children in compulsory education of non-Spanish nationality (2012)
1	State	Primary	10.94	6	13	19	10.7	18.4
2	State	Secondary	12.67	7	5	12	11.4	12.3
3	State	Secondary	12.79	11	14	25	11.4	12.3
4	State	Secondary	14.04	13	14	27	11.3	10.9
5	State	Secondary	15.89	7	12	19	9.1	9.8
6	Private	Special educational need	17.40	5	5	10	9.5	7.6
Total			13.71	49	63	112

^a Age when students answered the pre-test.

^b In Spain, Self-declared unemployment is usually lower than estimated unemployment. In 2012, the Spanish self-declared unemployment was 21.15% of the population whereas the estimated level of unemployment was 26.02% (INE, n.d.).

Table 3. Question: ‘How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about you and politics?’ Comparison of pre-test and post- test results by means of the non-parametric Wilcoxon test.

	Valid	Pre-test – Post-test (mean and typical deviation)	Max–Min	Sig
The government cares a lot about what all of us think about new laws	103	2.69 (1.204) – 2.25 (1.091)	1–5	0.003
The government is doing its best to find out what people want	102	2.57 (1.173) – 2.34 (1.094)	1–5	0.081
When people get together to demand change, the leaders in government listen	102	2.64 (1.151) – 2.65 (1.021)	1–5	0.864
The powerful leaders in government care very little about the opinions of people	103	2.69 (1.204) – 2.25 (1.091)	1–5	0.001
In this country a few individuals have a lot of political power while the rest of the people have very little power	101	2.38(1.120) – 2.16 (1.093)	1–5	0.039
The politicians quickly forget the needs of the voters who elected them	102	2.38 (1.130) – 2.18 (1.085)	1–5	0.056

Table 4. Question: ‘In the future, what do you think you will do?’ Comparison of pre-test and post- test results by means of the non-parametric Wilcoxon test.

	Valid	Pre-test – Post-test (mean and typical deviation)	Max–Min	Sig
Vote in national elections	103	3.65 (1.278) – 3.75 (1.169)	1–5	0.547
Get information about candidates before voting in an election	102	4.18 (1.022) – 4.32 (0.924)	1–5	0.255
Join a political party	102	2.13 (1.177) – 2.18 (1.066)	1–5	0.274
Write letters to a newspaper about social or political concerns	103	2.08 (1.112) – 2.19 (1.103)	1–5	0.274
Be a candidate for a local or city office	103	1.94 (1.089) – 1.82 (1.027)	1–5	0.304
Volunteer time to help poor or elderly people in the community	103	3.31 (0.999) – 3.26 (1.204)	1–5	0.201
Collect money for a social cause	102	3.19 (1.009) – 3.26 (1.024)	1–5	0.774
Collect signatures for a petition	102	3.29 (1.347) – 3.32 (1.045)	1–5	0.063
Spray-paint protest slogans on walls	102	2.19 (1.195) – 2.20 (1.034)	1–5	0.661
Block traffic as a form of protest	102	2.07 (1.150) – 2.24 (1.170_	1–5	0.066
Occupy public buildings as a form of protest	102	1.91 (1.145) – 1.89 (1.052)	1–5	0.663

Idescat. (n.d.). Institut d’estadistica de Catalunya [Statistical Institute of Catalonia]. Retrieved from http://www.idescat.cat/

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INE. (n.d.). Instituto Nacional de Estadistica [National Institute of Statistics]. Retrieved from http://www.ine.es/

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