Role of school climate and personality in the development of Czech adolescents’ political self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effects of school climate (open classroom and positive student relationships) and personality dispositions (shyness and need for cognition) on adolescents’ political self-efficacy. Data were collected in 2014 from 1,954 Czech ninth- and tenth-graders (mean age = 15.60). A multilevel analysis showed that school-level political self-efficacy predicted self-efficacy for local politics. However, schools and classrooms were rather homogeneous in terms of students’ mean political self-efficacy and students’ self-reported acquisition of civic skills at school. Hence, school characteristics had only limited associations with adolescents’ political self-efficacy. At the same time, students’ political efficacy had a considerable association with lower shyness and higher need for cognition. These results suggest that the development of political efficacy at school goes beyond simple general influences of school environment and individual differences between students must be considered.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the support of the Czech Science Foundation (GA14-20582S).