Critical Consciousness and Collective Political Action: An Empirical Study of Serbian Students

Participation in collective political action has primarily been linked to perceived injustice, emotional reactions, group efficacy, and identification with a disadvantaged group. The present study examined whether participation in collective political action is associated with differences in critical consciousness. Data were collected via an online survey following the onset of student protests at higher education institutions in Serbia. The sample comprised 331 students who reported protest participation (77.9%) and 83 students who reported non-participation (20.8%). Measures included sociodemographic variables, a single item assessing protest participation, and the Short Critical Consciousness Scale (ShoCCS). After correlating the error terms for two pairs of items, model fit indices indicated satisfactory structural validity of the ShoCCS (χ² = 119.49, df = 60, χ²/df = 1.99, TLI = .95, CFI = .96, GFI = .96, AGFI = .94, RMSEA = .05, 90% CI [.04, .06], SRMR = .07). Protest participants scored significantly higher on Critical Reflection (t = 4.62, p < .001, d = 0.56), Critical Action (z = −7.26, p < .001, r = 0.36), and Critical Motivation (t = 8.29, p < .001, d = 1.18), with no significant differences between the subsamples in age, gender, ethnic or religious minority status, or perceived household income. Psychometric results suggest that the Critical Action scale may require contextual adaptation, whereas the Critical Reflection and Critical Motivation scales demonstrated evidence of validity and reliability. Overall, the findings indicate that critical consciousness may contribute to explaining participation in collective political action.