Global citizenship and youth: Profiles of perception of global threats
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Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
This study investigates the perception of global threats among young people. Using data from the 2016 International Civics and Citizenship Study and applying a latent class analysis technique, the chapter classifies students according to their perceptions on global threats in three dimensions: (1) environmental (pollution, climate change, and water shortages); (2) economic (global financial crises, energy shortages, poverty, unemployment, and food shortages); and, (3) sociopolitical (crime, violent conflict, terrorism, overpopulation, and infectious diseases). The results show that students can be categorized into five classes: (a) aware: students who are quite aware of all the threats posed to them in the survey; (b) unaware: students who consider the threats to the future, except for pollution, as mostly not important; (c) aware but conflict senseless: students who consider most of the global threats as important, except for crime, violent crime, and unemployment; (d) aware but climate change and overpopulation senseless: students who consider most of the global threats as important, except for overpopulation and climate change; and, (e) pollutionists: students who consider pollution as important. These classes are comparable across countries, and important regional differences are discussed.