Political Participation: Conceptual Aspects, Measurement, and Explanation

This project addresses the need to understand Political Participation (PP) in Ecuador, a key indicator of democracy, whose dynamics have shown changing trends, including a civic culture based on distrust and an increase in unconventional participation, despite overall low rates. The main objective is to construct a robust theoretical and methodological model to explain PP, grounded in Political Psychology. Theoretically, the model will integrate sociodemographic, psychosocial (such as trust and political efficacy), and contextual variables. Methodologically, the project focuses on developing, constructing, validating, and standardizing a specific questionnaire for the Ecuadorian population. This involves processing quantitative and qualitative data collected in 2015 and 2016, utilizing advanced statistical analyses such as Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Cronbach's Alpha, multiple regression, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with software like SPSS and MPlus. A crucial phase involves the application and external validation of the developed metric, initially in university students in Quito, aiming to generate academic articles for indexed journals.<br/><br/><b>Goal</b>: <br/>To develop a theoretical-methodological model that explains Political Participation in Ecuador, from a Political Psychology perspective, considering socio-demographic, psychosocial, and contextual variables.<br/><br/><b>Research lines</b>: <br/>Political, social and community psychology