Abstract

This study investigates the perception of global threats among young people. Using data from the 2016 International Civics and Citizenship Study and applying a latent class analysis technique, the chapter classifies students according to their perceptions on global threats in three dimensions: (1) environmental (pollution, climate change, and water shortages); (2) economic (global financial crises, energy shortages, poverty, unemployment, and food shortages); and, (3) sociopolitical (crime, violent conflict, terrorism, overpopulation, and infectious diseases). The results show that students can be categorized into five classes: (a) aware: students who are quite aware of all the threats posed to them in the survey; (b) unaware: students who consider the threats to the future, except for pollution, as mostly not important; (c) aware but conflict senseless: students who consider most of the global threats as important, except for crime, violent crime, and unemployment; (d) aware but climate change and overpopulation senseless: students who consider most of the global threats as important, except for overpopulation and climate change; and, (e) pollutionists: students who consider pollution as important. These classes are comparable across countries, and important regional differences are discussed.