The Attitudes of Adolescents in the Czech Republic towards Contemporary Civic Virtues in Adults and Their Demands for Changes

Abstract

The aim of the survey was to find out what attitudes young people aged twelve to seventeen maintain towards adult civic qualities and virtues as compared with their demands for changes in civic behaviour. The objective of the study was to find out whether, based on their perception of adult behaviour, the critical youth wish for changes in civic behaviour and which aspects of citizen life they should be linked to. The survey tool used was a questionnaire investigating attitudes and behaviour in various situations of citizens’ everyday life. There were 33 Likert-type question items in the questionnaire (e.g. They are proud of their country.). The questionnaire showed a high level of reliability. The survey sample consisted of 533 adolescent respondents (aged 12–17). There were four factors generated through factor analysis from the collected results: 1. Respect for traditional social norms and roles; 2. Tolerance and respect for other people’s rights; 3. Patriotism and trust in public institutions; 4. Application of constitutional civic rights. The adolescent respondents were asked to mark the statements which should be changed. The outcome confirmed the hypothesis of high criticality in the respondents, which we consider a significant social challenge: adolescents demand a major change in civic behaviour described by the total of 14 items (42.7%) in all four factors. The highest number of proposed changes falls into the factor of “Respect for traditional social norms and roles”, while the fewest proposed changes concern the factor of “Patriotism and trust in public institutions”. According to the respondents, traditional social norms and roles and tolerance and respect for other people´s rights should be strengthened as well. The attitude towards active civic virtues implies a need for better and more sophisticated civic virtues education, both within the family and in schools. The results obtained from this survey will be used in generating civic education programmes for primary and secondary schools.