The development and testing of the youth social and political engagement questionnaire (YSPE questionnaire)

The paper substantiates the need to develop a social and psychological toolkit for the study of the social and political engagement of modern youth. The research of this issue on the basis of the systemic and diachronic approach is of high relevance to the scientific community. The author proposes the Youth Social and Political Engagement Questionnaire (YSPE questionnaire) consisting of 85 questions grouped into three units. The first unit allows one to assess the degree of personal involvement in the system of social and political relations expressed through the concepts of passivity and activity in the social and political life of society. The second set of questions is developed to examine the awareness and intentional activity, expressed through such concepts as understanding of social and political life, forecasting, goal-setting, planning, assessment of one’s engagement, its self-control and correction. The third unit describes the social and political engagement in terms of its constructive and destructive nature and is represented by the concepts of cynicism and aggressiveness in the social and political engagement. The paper presents the results of testing the reliability of the questionnaire by test-retest and splitting methods and the analysis findings of the empirical validity. The author concludes that the toolkit proposed is valid and reliable for the study of the social and political engagement of the personality.