Political media use, civic knowledge, civic self-efficacy, and gender: measuring active citizenship in Turkey

The study addresses how political media use and civic knowledge (political sophistication), civic self-efficacy, and gender shape active citizenship among adults in Turkey, a non-Western, democratically unstable context. It responds to gaps in prior research that focus largely on adolescents’ expected participation and that neglect internal civic self-efficacy among adults, particularly gender differences. The authors hypothesize that women’s greater involvement in unconventional, daily-life-related activities might enhance their civic self-efficacy. The purpose is to test a multidimensional model of active citizenship—encompassing civic knowledge, political media use, civic self-efficacy, and behaviors of engagement and participation—and to examine gender and demographic effects. The study formulates six hypotheses: H1: political sophistication positively affects civic self-efficacy; H2: political sophistication positively affects active citizenship behaviors; H3: civic self-efficacy positively affects active citizenship behaviors; H4: civic self-efficacy mediates the effect of political sophistication on active citizenship behaviors; H5: gender differences exist in civic self-efficacy and active citizenship behaviors; H6: active citizenship correlates with demographic variables (political orientation, education, income, religiosity, residence).

Civic knowledge supports informed, consistent, and democratic participation and is positively associated with both current and future civic engagement. Formal education, deliberative classroom climates, extracurriculars, and authentic civic experiences can enhance civic knowledge and engagement. Political media use (traditional and social) is a key source of political information and can stimulate interpersonal political discussion in families and peer groups, thereby mobilizing civic behaviors, though media indifference to citizens may dampen engagement in some contexts. Civic self-efficacy, grounded in Bandura’s domain-specific self-efficacy theory, differs from political efficacy; internal (civic self-efficacy) versus external efficacy should be distinguished. Prior work suggests civic self-efficacy predicts participation and can mediate effects of knowledge and discussion on engagement, largely shown in adolescent samples. Institutional and cultural contexts (e.g., statism, repression) can shape efficacy beliefs and participation modes. Gendered citizenship research shows persistent disparities in participation types: men more in conventional politics, women more in unconventional/community domains; participation is mediated by resources, education, socialization, and cultural/religious traditions. In Turkey, citizenship has been historically statist and gendered, with high electoral turnout but strong polarization and centralized state power influencing political interest and behavior. Prior Turkish studies suggest mixed associations of religiosity, education, political orientation, and urbanization with unconventional participation; community and rights-based CSOs may foster more active citizenship than obligation-based ones.

Design and participants: Cross-sectional survey of 731 Turkish citizens aged 18+, collected March–September 2017, across nine cities and surrounding rural areas (Ankara, İstanbul, Çankırı, Kahramanmaraş, Uşak, Trabzon, Diyarbakır, Osmaniye, Bartın), representing six of seven major regions. Random sampling aimed at model validation rather than national representativeness; attention to urban–rural, gender, and geographical spread. Sample: 49.8% male (n=364), 49.9% female (n=365), 0.3% no response (n=2). Data collection via in-person surveys by trained researchers; self-administered with interviewer assistance where needed; average completion ~25 minutes. Ethics: Approval from Çankırı Karatekin University Ethics Committee; informed consent and anonymity assured. Measures: All items referenced to participation within the last three years. Civic knowledge: 4 items (5-point Likert 1 none to 5 very much) assessing knowledge of rights/responsibilities, state organs, and regime differences. Political media use (PMU): 3 items (WVS-based) assessing daily time following politics via TV, newspapers, internet (1 none to 5 >5 hours). Civic self-efficacy (CSE): 5 items from the community factor of a validated active citizenship self-efficacy scale (authors’ prior work), assessing ability to participate in community activities, help others, address environmental problems, and contribute to community development; prior scale validity: 3 factors explaining 57.17% variance; Cronbach’s alpha 0.90; current study uses community items. Active citizenship behaviors: 14 ESS-validated items. Organizational participation (OP): 8 items on frequency of participation in unions, cultural, sports, community, political organizations (1 never to 5 very often). Demonstration and protest (DP): 6 items on contacting officials, working in parties/action groups/associations, signing petitions, lawful demonstrations, and boycotts in last 3 years (1 none to 5 >5 times). Demographics: gender (1 female, 2 male), religiosity (0–10), political orientation (right/left/none and alignment with specific ideological groups), education, income, age, and residence type (village to metropolitan). Analysis: Data screened for normality via skewness and kurtosis (within acceptable ±2 to ±3). Measurement and structural modeling conducted with PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 4; bootstrapping 10,000 resamples. Model fit assessed via SRMR. Reliability/validity assessed using outer loadings, AVE (≥0.50), Composite Reliability, Cronbach’s alpha (≥0.70), Fornell–Larcker and HTMT discriminant validity criteria. Hypotheses H1–H4 tested via PLS-SEM. Gender differences (H5) assessed with independent-samples t-tests in SPSS 22; demographic effects (H6) assessed with ANOVA (e.g., residence differences).

Measurement model: Outer loadings ranges—PMU: 0.65–0.75; CK: 0.58–0.83; CSE: 0.54–0.92; OP: 0.63–0.82; DP: 0.62–0.76. All relevant t-values >1.96, p<0.05; AVE ≥0.50 across constructs; CR and alpha ≥0.70; SRMR=0.06 (<0.08). Discriminant validity satisfied (Fornell–Larcker; HTMT<0.85; MSV/ASV<AVE). Structural paths (Table 4): H1a CK→CSE β=0.45, t=9.67, p<0.05 supported; H1b PMU→CSE β=0.05, t=1.06 not supported. H2a CK→DP β=0.31, t=5.56, p<0.05 supported; H2b CK→OP β=0.13, t=2.30, p<0.05 supported. H2c PMU→DP β=0.15, t=2.91, p<0.05 supported; H2d PMU→OP β=0.28, t=4.92, p<0.05 supported. H3a CSE→DP β=0.19, t=4.81, p<0.05 supported; H3b CSE→OP β=0.21, t=4.56, p<0.05 supported. Mediation (Table 5–6): CSE mediates CK→DP (indirect=0.09, t=4.69, p<0.05; VAF=0.23, partial) and CK→OP (indirect=0.09, t=4.24, p<0.05; VAF=0.41, partial). No mediation for PMU via CSE to DP/OP (t≈1.01, ns). Gender differences (H5; Table 7): Males scored higher than females on PMU (t=3.131, p<0.001), CK (t=4.495, p<0.001), OP (participation) (t=3.922, p<0.001), DP (t=6.659, p<0.001), and CSE (t=2.552, p=0.011). Path coefficients with gender (coded) were significantly negative for CK (−0.43; t=5.59), DP (−0.32; t=4.62), OP (−0.21; t=2.68), PMU (−0.29; t=3.36), indicating lower scores among women. Residence effects (H6; Table 8): OP differs by residence (F=2.622, p=0.034); village residents have lower OP than city (LSD p=0.004) and metropolitan (p=0.014). DP also differs by residence (F=3.457, p=0.008); village residents lower than larger urban areas. Other demographics: Education showed an equalizing effect on gender gaps in participation (e.g., women’s OP higher among university/postgraduate groups). No significant differences by religiosity for active citizenship in this dataset. Overall: Active citizenship is multidimensional and interrelated; civic self-efficacy predicts participation and partially mediates the effect of civic knowledge on engagement and protest. Contrary to the hypothesis, women did not show higher civic self-efficacy in community engagement; instead, men scored higher across variables. Education attenuates gender differences.

Findings confirm that active citizenship among Turkish adults integrates political sophistication, civic self-efficacy, and behavioral participation. Civic knowledge directly increases engagement in organizational participation and demonstrations/protest and also enhances civic self-efficacy, which in turn fosters participation—indicating both direct and mediated pathways from knowledge to action. Political media use promotes participation directly but does not meaningfully build civic self-efficacy, suggesting media exposure mobilizes behaviors without necessarily strengthening perceived competence in community action. The gender analysis challenges the expectation that women’s greater propensity toward unconventional, community-related activities would translate into higher civic self-efficacy; instead, gender gaps persist across knowledge, efficacy, and behaviors, though higher education reduces disparities. Place-based disparities show lower engagement in villages than urban centers, aligning with resource and opportunity structures. The lack of religiosity effects in this study contrasts with some Turkish findings but aligns with others emphasizing stronger roles for age, gender, SES, and urbanization. Overall, the results emphasize civic self-efficacy as a key psychological lever for adult active citizenship and suggest that interventions increasing civic knowledge and structured participation opportunities can indirectly build efficacy and participation, especially for underrepresented groups.

This study contributes by modeling active citizenship as a multidimensional construct among adults in a non-Western context and by incorporating internal civic self-efficacy as both predictor and mediator. It shows that civic self-efficacy is pivotal for engagement and partially mediates the impact of civic knowledge on participation, while political media use mainly exerts direct effects. Contrary to expectations, women’s higher orientation to unconventional activities did not yield higher civic self-efficacy; gender gaps remained, attenuated by education. Policy and practice should prioritize building civic self-efficacy via instructional practices, deliberative and open classroom climates, civic action projects, and mentorship, alongside efforts to expand inclusive, accessible participation opportunities that reflect and promote what women value. Future research should integrate both internal and external efficacy, probe motivations for engagement, and employ mixed methods and larger, more representative samples to capture contextual dynamics over time.

Contextual factors specific to protest events and political opportunities were not directly modeled, limiting interpretation of some behaviors. The sample, while adequate for hypothesis testing, was not nationally representative across all regions. Data were collected in 2017; subsequent political changes in Turkey (e.g., decline in freedom status by 2023) may affect current generalizability. Measurement focused on internal civic self-efficacy; external efficacy was not included.