neighbourhood; informed about news and decisions; plan to become actively
involved in neighbourhood issues; individual’s responsibility to solve
problems; local government people welcome my engagement; take a
leadership role; confident to criticise leaders);
Influence of politics – Four questions about local politics (politics has strong
influence; politics influences the manner in which goods and services are
distributed; influences access to resources; politics influences how I interact
in my neighbourhood).
All questions were asked verbally on a 5-point, not at all/strongly disagree (1) to
very/strongly agree (5). The reliability of the indices was calculated, and, as seen below, the
results showed reliability estimates ranging from 0.686 to 0.949, but most were greater than
0.7.4
We then tested the indices as dependent variables against the independent variable of gender.
The data was analysed in SPPS (20).
Findings
Statistical analysis
Statistical analysis revealed a number of differences as well as there being no differences
between the young men and women in the sample.
Table 2: Difference in measures, Male versus Female
Public Debate
Competencies
Attitudes about gender equality
Social Relationships
Confidence in social engagement
Confidence with duty bearers
Participation in neighbourhood
Influence of politics
Male
[n=36]
3.83
3.61
3.72
3.83
3.89
3.19
3.39
3.61
Female
[n=31]
3.42
3.39
3.71
3.39
3.39
2.97
2.77
3
df
65
65
65
65
65
65
65
65
t
Sig
1.997
1.167
0.067
1.956
1.582
0.716
2.352
2.465
0.05
ns
ns
0.055
ns
ns
0.022
0.016
Young men were significantly different (but not strongly) in civic capability, social
relationships, participation in the neighbourhood, and influence of politics. There were no
differences in competencies, attitudes about gender equality, confidence in social
engagement, and confidence with duty bearers. It seem contradictory that young women
would express having a wide range of competencies as well as having confidence in social
engagement and confidence with duty bearers, but believe that they have less capacity in
public debate, participation in the neighbourhood, and believe that politics has less effect on
the community than males. However, as discussed below in detail, these differences may be
explicable on a variety of reasons, but generally it can be surmised that the more public the
4
Reliability was calculated using Cronbach‘s Alpha.
6