The development of a valid and reliable instrument to assess young people's political (dis)engagement in Britain and Portugal: a psychometric approach

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Pontes, AILDN ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3712-9425, 2019. The development of a valid and reliable instrument to assess young people's political (dis)engagement in Britain and Portugal: a psychometric approach. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing interest in understanding youth political engagement. However, it has been argued that the instruments used to assess the concept often lack adequate validation, and this is important as this practice may result in biased statistical conclusions. Consequently, the main aim of this thesis is to advance the field of political participation by developing a new robust psychometric instrument to assess young people's political engagement. This PhD also sets out to critically evaluate how the construct of political engagement is currently represented in research and to propose a conceptualisation of youth political engagement, and critically examine how adequately existing research instruments measure the phenomena of young people's political engagement. To achieve the main aim and objectives of this thesis, a mixed methods approach was implemented. By using qualitative methods – focus groups – it was possible to better understand young people's perceptions of the concept of political engagement, and therefore propose a new conceptualisation of young people's political engagement. Additionally, in order to develop and validate the scale to assess the construct of political engagement among young people, a quantitative approach – using confirmatory factor analysis – was adopted. Ultimately, this thesis will help clarify current conceptual and measurement debates around young people's political engagement within the field of Political Science.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Pontes, A.I.L.D.N.
Date:	May 2019
Rights:	This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	25 Sep 2019 15:34
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2020 15:28
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/37784