A national survey on the Catholic youth is launched by the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) and the Episcopal Commission on the Youth (ECY) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) this 2013. Called the National Filipino Catholic Youth Survey (NFCYS) 2013, this national survey is currently being fielded commencing 30th July until 15th August 2013 by participating universities all over the Philippines tapped to administer the survey among identified dioceses in the National Capital Region (NCR), Luzon, Visayan and Mindanao.
Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) is one of the partner institutions requested by CEAP and ECL-CBCP to manage the survey in the Mindanao region. Dr. Christine Diaz of the Political Science and History Department and M. Isabel S. Actub of the Arrupe Office of Social Formation, the lead persons representing ADDU, will run the survey in the Diocese of Tagum (covering the provinces of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley). They will closely coordinate with the University Research Council (URC) during the survey administration.
There are only five universities tapped by CEAP and ECL-CBCP to assist in the administration of the survey in the Mindanao region, among them are ADDU, Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU), Xavier University (XU), Notre Dame University (NDU) of Cotabato City, and the University of the Immaculate Conception (UIC), covering the dioceses of Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, Pagadian, Dipolog, Digos, Tagum, Zamboanga and the Prelature of Isabela. The survey uses a purposive sampling method to be administered in pre-identified sample dioceses, vicariates, and parishes spread all over different ecclesiastical jurisdictions in the four regions of the NCR, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The NFCYS questionnaire consists of five (5) parts, namely: 1) Socio-Demographic Profile, 2) Religious Beliefs and Practices, 3) Psychosocial Attributes, 4) Cultural Beliefs, and 5) Political Participation, containing fourteen (14) domains as well as seventeen ( 17) subdomains, and covering 243 items all in all. It is a 28-page tool that mostly uses a 4-point agreement scale, with the rest using frequency scales in various levels. There are open-ended and semi-structured items, sometimes answerable by a Yes or a No, with skip questions. Identification of respondents is centered on the following key criteria: Any Catholic youth between the ages of 13 to 39, single/unmarried, with the respondents distributed evenly among males and females.
The last national Catholic youth survey done by CEAP and ECL-CBCP was about a decade ago. This research, however, is more expansive in scope than the last survey and serves as a critical follow up of the first since it covers a far wider and larger scope and participation. It is no accident that this follow-up study on the Filipino Catholic youth is being deployed in the wake of the Universal Church’s celebration of the Year of Faith (September 2012-September 2013).
The consolidated results of the research will be presented during the CEAP National Convention in Cebu in September of 2013. (By M. Isabel S. Actub, Arrupe Communications & Advocacy, for the University Research Council [URC])