The inclusion of measures of civic engagement in the IALSS makes it possible to explore the link between community involvement, literacy, numeracy and problemsolving. However, it is not possible to establish a cause and effect relationship. If those who are more proficient in literacy, numeracy and problem solving are more likely to participate in their community, they may also be more likely to develop strong community ties (See Healy and Côté, 2001).
The IALSS measured several aspects of engagement in community and society including participation in various groups and organizations and participation in volunteer activities. The analysis in this section focuses on a summary measure of these two types of participation. This summary measure is called civic engagement. The civic engagement summary index differentiates those who participate a great deal from those who participate a little or not at all (See Text Box B5).
Text box B5
Measuring civic engagement in the IALSS
The IALSS asked a series of questions relating to participation in community groups and organizations, and in volunteer activities. From these questions, two indicators– civic participation and social engagement - and one summary index were created.
The civic participation indicator was built by placing the seven measures of participation in various groups and organizations on a common scale, with a score of zero signifying no participation and a score of seven signifying participation in all possible civic groups and organizations. In order to facilitate the interpretation of results, a simple two-category variable was created separating those who participate in civic activities from those who do not.
Similarly, the social engagement indicator was built by placing the five measures of participation in volunteer activities on a common scale, where a score of zero signifies no volunteer activity and a score of five signifies volunteering in all the measured areas. Again, for the purpose of reporting, this index was then transformed into a simple variable with two categories, separating those who volunteer from those who do not.
Finally, a composite index of civic engagement using all 12 of the measures was developed to identify respondents who neither participate in civic activities nor volunteer in any of the measured areas.
An analysis of the relationships between civic participation, social engagement and the four competency domains measured in the IALSS shows that the distributions of proficiency by participation in civic and social activities are similar across the four domains. For these reasons, the data analysis presented below uses only the composite index of civic engagement and the prose literacy scale.
Figure 5.1 shows the distribution of prose literacy levels by the scores on the civic engagement index. The observed patterns suggest that the higher the prose literacy levels, the more likely it is that a respondent engaged in various forms of civic and social activities.