International Journal of Environment, Engineering, and Education
Vol. 8 No. 3 (2026)

Educational Position and Moral–Civic Values among Tertiary-Educated Young Adults: A Bayesian Mundlak Analysis across 66 World Values Survey Samples

Wenxin Zu (Department of Pedagogy, Kyrgyz State University named after I. Arabaev, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)
Jie Yang (Department of Pedagogy, Kyrgyz State University named after I. Arabaev, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)
Li Yin (School of Marxism, Chongqing College of International Business and Economics, Chongqing, China)
Zhyldyz Takenova (Department of Pedagogy, Ala-Too International University, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan)



Article Info

Publish Date
02 Sep 2026

Abstract

Higher education institutions have a dual purpose: to educate and to socialise moral and civic citizens. While this mandate is widely acknowledged, empirical studies of value formation are often limited to single-case studies or use concepts that are difficult to compare across national contexts. In this study, we propose and test a data-based model of moral and civic value formation using the World Values Survey (WVS) Wave 7. A sample of 9,589 tertiary-educated individuals aged from 18 to 30 in 66 countries was used for the analyses. We used a systematic pre-processing protocol to recode WVS special missing categories, exclude completely missing variables, and build six theoretically-informed, normalized indicators of prosocial values, achievement-responsibility values, moral rejection, institutional trust, gender-equitable education values and social trust. These were then combined into a formative Moral-Civic Value Formation Index (MCVFI). HC3 robust standard error regression models were estimated at the individual level and with country fixed effects. The individual-level model identified education level (β = 0.099, p < 0.001), female gender (β = 0.046, p < 0.001), and family-religious socialization (β = 0.267, p < 0.001) as significant positive predictors. Country fixed effects substantially improved model fit, raising adjusted R² from 0.084 to 0.306. This confirms that moral and civic value formation is context-sensitive and embedded in wider cultural-national environments. The study contributes a reproducible, open-data framework for integrating cross-national public values data into educational research on civic and moral development.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

ijeedu

Publisher

Subject

Civil Engineering, Building, Construction & Architecture Computer Science & IT Education Electrical & Electronics Engineering Engineering Environmental Science

Description

The International Journal of Environment, Engineering, and Education [e-ISSN: 2656-8039] is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that is published three times a year [in April, August, and December]; this journal provides the right platform for authors to update their knowledge, information, and ...