ICCS 2009 Technical Report - IEA

Table 12.48: Reliabilities for scales reflecting students’ attitudes toward European integrationCountry Common Policies Unification Common Currency EUAustria 0.63 0.65 0.67 0.75Belgium (Flemish) 0.61 0.65 0.66 0.80Bulgaria 0.67 0.72 0.69 0.80Cyprus 0.61 0.63 0.62 0.74Czech Republic 0.60 0.76 0.75 0.80Denmark 0.60 0.72 0.76 0.76England 0.66 0.78 0.72 0.80Estonia 0.62 0.79 0.74 0.76Finland 0.64 0.80 0.73 0.81Greece 0.56 0.64 0.59 0.69Ireland 0.63 0.75 0.67 0.79Italy 0.59 0.67 0.64 0.74Latvia 0.57 0.63 0.70 0.73Liechtenstein 0.66 0.73 0.79 0.82Lithuania 0.66 0.68 0.70 0.77Luxembourg 0.65 0.66 0.64 0.75Malta 0.63 0.67 0.68 0.80Netherlands 0.59 0.66 0.68 0.72Poland 0.63 0.77 0.76 0.78Slovak Republic 0.62 0.75 0.73 0.79Slovenia 0.59 0.68 0.65 0.77Spain 0.62 0.70 0.68 0.78Sweden 0.66 0.75 0.80 0.82Switzerland 0.63 0.76 0.75 0.79ICCS average 0.63 0.73 0.72 0.78Three items in Question 10 were designed to measure students’ perceptions of Europeanunification. These items were used to form the scale students’ attitudes toward European unification(EURUNION). The scale reliability was 0.73 for the pooled ICCS sample. Reliabilities rangedin size from 0.63 to 0.80 across the participating countries (see Table 12.48). The itemparameters that were used for scaling are shown in Table 12.49.Question 11 included statements about economies and currencies within European countries.Students were asked to indicate their level of agreement (“strongly agree,” “agree,” “disagree,”“strongly disagree”) with each one. Three of the items consisted of statements related tocommon currencies and the euro. These were used to derive the scale students’ attitudes towardcommon European currency (EUCURR). The scale reliability was 0.72 for the combined EuropeanICCS sample. The national reliabilities ranged from 0.59 to 0.80 (see Table 12.48). Table 12.49shows the item wording as well as the item parameters that were used for scaling. Higher valueson this scale reflect greater agreement with the notion that European countries should have ashared currency.236ICCS 2009 technical report