Trust, civic self-efficacy, and acceptance of corruption among Colombian adolescents: shifting attitudes between 2009-2016

Civic self-efficacy and trust are interrelated dimensions of citizenship that are important in adolescence and linked to educational contexts. Furthermore, they have been separately connected to corruption. However, the three factors are seldom looked at together and investigations of them using international education datasets are rarely contextualised within national histories and politics. The current study uses the 2009 and 2016 ICCS and multi-group multilevel confirmatory factor analysis to investigate differences in and relationships between adolescent Colombians’ trust, civic self-efficacy, and acceptance of corruption. During these years, the government was involved in a peace process that sparked political polarisation and embroiled in several corruption scandals. Analyses revealed lower institutional trust, but higher civic self-efficacy and acceptance of corruption in the 2016 cohort. The results indicate that declining trust and rising acceptance of corruption may not dictate negative civic outcomes, while highlighting possible areas for refocusing peace education in Colombia and beyond.