DOI: 10.3886/icpsr21661.v3
title: IEA Civic Education Study, 1999: Civic Knowledge and Engagement Among 14-Year-Olds in 23 European Countries, 2 Latin American Countries, Hong Kong, Australia, and the United States
title: Version 3

description: The IEA Civic Education Study (known as CIVED) is an
international assessment of the civic knowledge and skills of
14-year-olds (8th and 9th graders) in 28 countries. Data were
collected in 1999 under the auspices of the International Association
for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in
Amsterdam. Begun in 1958, IEA is a consortium of educational and
social science research institutes in more than 50 countries. The
IEA's International Steering Committee (University of Maryland,
College Park) and an international Technical Advisory Group guided the
research. The International Coordinating Center (Humboldt University
of Berlin) coordinated the day-to-day operations and the IEA Data
Processing Center (Hamburg, Germany) processed the data. The Study's
National Research Coordinators developed an octagon model that guided
the two phases of the study, the first phase a more qualitative set of
case studies in 24 countries and the second phase a test and survey of
students in 29 countries. This model gave special attention to
macrosystem elements such as the country's history of democracy,
transnational position, economy, and media. It also delineated ways in
which civic education goals are carried into practice, especially the
role of the formal community, informal community, school, peer group,
and family. Publications from the study have addressed each of these
theories and approaches and have been authored by educational
researchers, civic education specialists, comparative scholars,
political scientists, and psychologists. The following countries took
part: Australia, Belgium (French-speaking), Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany,
Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic,
Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The sizes of the
nationally-representative samples ranged from 2,076 students tested in
Belgium (French-speaking) to 5,688 students tested in Chile. Civic
achievement was measured by a total civic knowledge scale composed of
two subscales: civic content and skills. Civic content refers to
knowledge of civic concepts such as the characteristics of
democracies, and civic skills refer to the interpretative skills
needed to understand civic-related communication (e.g., to make sense
of a political cartoon or an election leaflet). In addition, survey
items measured students' concepts of democracy, citizenship, and
government, attitudes toward civic issues such as immigrants' or
women's rights, trust in governmental institutions, and several types
of expected political and community participation. Students also
answered questions pertaining to their background characteristics,
their organizational participation, and the climate of their school
and classroom. Item responses gathered from approximately 95,000
students in total and 22 scale scores developed with confirmatory
factor analysis and item response theory are included on the file.
Questionnaires also solicited background information from school
principals and teachers.
description: Three weights are available in the CIVED dataset, all of
 which are designed to ensure national representation of the sample.
 The Total Weight (TOTWGT) sums to the population of 14-year-olds in
 the population of each country in 1999. The House Weight (HOUSEWGT) is
 a normalized version of the Total Weight that sums to the sample size
 in each country. The Senate Weight (SENWGT) sums to 1,000 in each
 country, and allows each country to be given equal weight in analysis
 while still retaining national representation. Further detail about
 the creation of these weights can be found in Chapter 6 of Schulz,
 W., and Sibberns, H., IEA Civic Education Study Technical Report,
Amsterdam: IEA, 2004.
description: The sampling consisted of a two-stage stratified cluster
 sample design where the first stage consisted of a sample of schools
 that had been stratified in a number of countries. The second stage
 consisted of a single civic education class selected from the target
 grade in sampled schools. It was also permissible to add a third stage
 where students were sampled within classrooms. The sizes of the
 nationally-representative samples ranged from 2,076 students tested in
Belgium (French-speaking) to 5,688 students tested in Chile.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Australia
DS2: Belgium (French-speaking)
DS3: Bulgaria
DS4: Switzerland
DS5: Chile
DS6: Colombia
DS7: Cyprus
DS8: Czech Republic
DS9: Germany
DS10: Denmark
DS11: England
DS12: Estonia
DS13: Finland
DS14: Greece
DS15: Hong Kong (SAR)
DS16: Hungary
DS17: Italy
DS18: Lithuania
DS19: Latvia
DS20: Norway
DS21: Poland
DS22: Portugal
DS23: Romania
DS24: Russian Federation
DS25: Slovak Republic
DS26: Slovenia
DS27: Sweden
DS28: United States
description: The universe was comprised of 14-year-old students in each
of the following 28 countries: Australia, Belgium (French-speaking),
Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England,
Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, Italy,
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian
Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
United States.
description: self-enumerated questionnaireTo compute Sampling variances, means, percentages,
regression coefficients and their JRR standard errors, users are
provided with SPSS macros. The four Jackknife SPSS macros
(JackGen.sps, JackReg.sps, SampleJackGen.sps, and SampleJackREG.sps)
are summarized in a single PDF file called 21661-Documentation.pdf. Users
need to copy and paste the required macros and to run them as an SPSS
syntax file.The User's Manual and Reports documentation are
provided by the data producer as Portable Document Format (PDF)
files.An update to the study was performed in order to add survey question text to the codebooks, to make the data available for the online analysis formats, and to provide the data in the R statistical package as well.For more information about the study, users should visit the IEA Civic Education Study website.