Indicators of (In)Tolerance Among European Young People: An Assessment of Measurement Invariance in ICCS 2016

Abstract

This contribution is an executive summary of the draft article “Indicators of (In)Tolerance among European Young People: An Assessment of Measurement Invariance in ICCS 2016” which was presented at the EARLI SIG 13 and InZentIM Conference 2018 on “Migration, Social Transformation, and Education for Democratic Citizenship.” A subsequent version of the background article is under consideration for publication in a journal. Further information can be obtained from the first author upon request. The work considers the topic of tolerance as an important goal of those European education policies that focus on education for democratic citizenship. It argues that cross-cultural comparability must be empirically assessed and ensured to enable the measurement of highly relevant indicators that serve to monitor inter-European and international differences in young people’s tolerant attitudes. Using data provided by the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS, 2016), we examine the extent to which average comparisons of European cross-national differences in young people’s tolerant attitudes toward immigrants, ethnic/racial groups, and gender equality, are empirically justified. Results of multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) show that cross-cultural comparability can be achieved with some modifications. We conclude by providing information on further scale refinement and improvement.