Effects of Citizenship Education on Knowledge,Attitude, Subjective Norm and Behavioral Intentionof High School Girls in Shiraz, Southern Iran

Abstract Background/Objective: This study aimed to address the knowledge gap in citizenship education. In other words, there was an attempt to investigate the effect of a citizenship education program on knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral intention of high schools girls. Methods: 228 female students, 91 in the experimental and 137 in the control groups participated in this study. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The educational program was run in the experimental group using interactive teaching-learning techniques. The research data were, then, analyzed in SPSS, using inferential statistics. Results: The mean score of the students’ knowledge in the experimental group increased from 7.35±1.93 in the pretest to 11.14±1.78 in the posttest, while in the control group this score remained approximately the same in the pre- and post-tests. The pre- and post-test means of attitude scores were statistically different, but not in the control group. The pretest mean scores of the subjective norm in the experimental and control groups were relatively similar, but in the posttest it became significantly different (experimental: 25.78±3.77, control: 23.40±4.62). The students’ behavioral intention score increased from 18.51±2.71 to 20.87±3.04 in the experimental group. The mean scores of intention in the pretest and posttest were not statistically different in the control group. In the second posttests, the levels of these constructs remained unchanged in the control group, but they were significantly higher than pretest scores in the experimental group. Conclusion: This study revealed the adolescents’ need for as well as the efficacy of a citizenship education program.