Political Attitude Structure of Schoolboys in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Several main dimensions were identified by factor analysis of political attitudes of secondary schoolboys in Northern Ireland. Attitudinal responses of 303 Catholics and 266 Protestants were used in the present study. A composite sub-sample of 260 boys was also derived to give a roughly representative sample of secondary schoolboys in Northern Ireland. Among the key dimensions identified by factor analysis of these samples were: the degree of acceptance of members of the opposite communal group for general social interaction, acceptance or rejection of the other group for more intimate association, the degree of approval of violent behaviour, the amount of positive sentiment toward the government, and the degree of support for the ideological assumptions of Unionism. Attitude scales were derived to represent these factors and tested for reliability. Reasonable reliability was demonstrated for scales measuring most of the above dimensions, though only a composite scale to measure intergroup attitudes had reliability coefficients comparable to those of the other factors.