Civic Intentions and Actions: Exploring Civic Engagement among College Students in Mainland China

Abstract

For the study discussed in this article, the authors developed a survey instrument to assess civic engagement among college students in China. Derived from focus-group interviews and extant literature on civic engagement, the survey was administered to 587 students from three universities in Southern China. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on a randomly split-half sample, and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the other split-half sample to evaluate measurement structure and measurement invariance of the survey. A total of 22 items were included in the final measurement model. The authors identified five first-order factors from the survey (i.e., helping others, community service, acting on social problems, civic salience, and civic responsibilities), which loaded on two second-order factors (i.e., civic actions and civic attitudes). The authors also tested measurement invariance across male and female participants in the sample. Implications of the second-order factor structures and measurement invariance in future research on civic engagement in China are discussed.