Students' political and social participation in Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Dongfang College, Beijing City, China

Abstract

The study was conducted to determined he social and political participation in Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Dongfang College, Beijing City, China, and to determine the relationship between the students’ personal characteristics and their political and social awareness and political and social participation. The relationship between the respondents’ personal characteristics and attitude toward political and social activities as well as the political and social participation were also determined. The descriptive-relationship type of the study and one-shot survey design was used in the course of the study. A validated questionnaire was used to analyze the descriptive data. The Gamma, Chi-square and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the significance and strength of relationship between variables at 0.05 alpha levels. The over-all political and social awareness of the respondents reveals that more than seventy percent of respondents had moderate awareness to political and social activities. This means that they were able to identify the political and social activities conducted by the government and the school. More than ninety percent of the respondents had positive attitude towards political and social activities, while the respondents have low participation in political activities in the community. The results also show that more than twenty percent of them have low participation in political activities than in social activities, thus students are more involved in social activities. According to sex, both male and female had moderate level of awareness to political and social activities. As to age, the 23 and above age group has high level of awareness to political and social activities. This means that age or maturity could determine one’s awareness to political and social activities. As to year level, the seniors had high level of awareness in the political and social activities. On the other hand, both male and female have positive attitude towards political and social activities. Conversely, gender does not distinguish the respondent’s attitude towards political and social activities. The respondents’ age and sex found not to be significantly related to their political and social awareness, political and social attitude, political and social participation. A significant relationship was found between the respondents’ year level and political and social awareness, political and social attitude and political and social participation. The respondents’ political and social awareness are found not to be significantly related to their political and social participation. This indicates that the participation in political and social activities is not dependent on their knowledge/awareness of political and social activities. Finally, there is a significant relationship between the respondents’ attitude towards political and social activities and participation in social and political activities. Based on the results and finding of the study, it can be concluded that generally, the students of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Dongfang College have a moderate level of awareness about political and social activities which was not influenced by their gender. Their positive attitude towards political and social activities was influenced only by year level where they belong. Furthermore, the respondents’ level of awareness about political and social activities has not significantly influenced participation in political and social activities. Only the respondents’ attitude significantly influenced the respondents’ political and social participation.