This qualitative study examines U.S. high school students aged 15-18 and their understandings of democracy. It analyzes student interpretations of common survey items used to assess democratic support and openness to authoritarian alternatives.
Use Cases
- Analyze qualitative responses to understand how high school students interpret concepts like 'democratic support' and 'authoritarian alternatives'.
- Compare student understandings of democracy from focus groups against assumptions made by political scientists in survey design.
- Identify gaps in civic education by examining the limited or primarily formal understandings of democracy expressed by students.
Strengths
- Focuses on an understudied adolescent demographic (ages 15-18).
- Draws on qualitative data from focus groups and interviews to provide depth.
- Addresses methodological concerns about existing measures of democratic support.
Limitations
- Sample size and number of participants are unknown.
- Geographic coverage within the U.S. is unspecified.
- Data collection method and time range are not provided.
Provenance
- Source
- ICPSR Harvested Dataverse
- Collection Method
- Focus groups and interviews.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- United States