<![CDATA[The development of civic character has become an increasingly important concern in contemporary citizenship education, particularly in response to the rapid expansion of digital technologies that have transformed how individual access, interpret, and engage with civic information. Despite growing scholarly attention to digital literacy and civic ethics, studies that integrate both dimensions into a comprehensive civic character learning framework remain limited. This study aims to reconstruct a civic character learning model through the integration of digital literacy and civic ethics and to examine its effectiveness in strengthening students’ civic character. The research employed a quasi-experimental design using a pretest-posttest control group approach involving 320 secondary school students selected through stratified random sampling from six schools across three sub-districts in Labuhanbatu Regency. The intervention was implemented over a twelve-week period. Data were collected using the Civic Character Scale (CCS-28) and the Digital Civic Competency Inventory (DCCI-24). Statistical analyses were conducted using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings revealed that students who participated in the integrated learning model demonstrated significantly higher civic character scores than those in the control group (F (1,317) = 84.32, p < .001, ?² = .21). Furthermore, digital literacy significantly mediated the relationship between civic ethics instruction and civic character development (? = .43, p < .001), explaining 47% of the variance in civic character outcomes. These findings suggest that digital literacy serves not only as a complementary competency but also as a crucial mechanism in fostering civic character within digitally mediated democratic societies.]]>
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