2 ‘Young Mayor’ (YM) project at the Municipality of Santa Maria da Feira
3 Young people’s political participation in public decision-making
4 Method
Sociodemographic variables. The questionnaire collects sociodemographic information including sex (0 = male, 1 = female), age group (0 = 12-14 years, 1 = 15-18 years), school performance, and socioeconomic status (a composite variable that comprises the parents’ schooling level and professional status, and the number of physical and digital books).
All the scales used in this study were submitted to confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). The goodness-of-fit indices used in these analyses were Chi2 statistic, Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). The Chi2df value < 5.0 is considered a measure of good fit (Arbuckle, 2008). The CFI values between [0.9; 0.95[ indicate a good fit and values ≥ 0.95 indicate a very good fit (Bentler, 1990). The RMSEA values between [0.5; 0.8[ are considered good and values < 0.5 are v
Impact of the Young Mayor project. To explore young people’s perception of the YM impact, we used a scale consisted of four items (“in the family”; “in the school community”; “in the general community”, and “in their opportunities for participation”). The respondents were asked to rate the items on a five-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree). The confirmatory factor analysis showed an acceptable fit of the measurement model [X2(2) = 21.231; p ≤ 0.000; X2/df = 10.615; CFI = 0.987; R
Evaluation of the Young Mayor project. To investigate how the young people evaluate YM, we asked them to express their opinions using a five-point Likert scale, upon the efficacy of the project dissemination (1 = insufficient to 5 = excellent),organisation of election day (1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree), and school’s role in the project, which is a composite variable that results from the aggregation of the means of four indicators, namely the role of the school in the promotion of applications,
5 Results
6 Discussion and conclusions
7 Limitation and further research
8 References
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