Contextual moderators of the link between national and European identity among European youth

Identification with Europe can constitute an important part of psychological citizenship for European citizens. From a self-categorization perspective, higher-order (e.g., with Europe) and lower order subgroup identities (e.g., with the nation) may interfere with each other if they are seen as incompatible. We were interested in contextual moderators at school and country level of youth' national identity on identification with Europe. We used multi-level regression analyses based on data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS, 2009). Results showed strong positive effects of national identity at the individual, and classroom-level on European identity. However, main effects of national identity at the individual level were qualified by number of interactions with contextual-level measures of trust in the EU and indicators of social and economic inequality. Results point to the powerful effects of context in shaping the relationship between national and European identity.