Political Values and Their Relationship to Intellectual Security among University Students: A Field Study

Objectives: This study aimed to reveal the level of political values and their relationship to intellectual security among university students in Jordan. Methods: The study applied two instruments: the political values scale, comprising 48 items distributed across six dimensions (freedom, justice, tolerance, citizenship, responsibility, and political participation values); and the intellectual security scale, consisting of 27 items. The study’s sample included 428 students from Al-Balqa Applied University. Results: The study's findings indicated that the level of political values among the students was high overall, except for political participation values, which were at a moderate level. The ranking was as follows: justice and equality values, citizenship values, responsibility values, freedom values, tolerance values, and political participation values. The study showed a statistically significant difference in the level of political values attributed to the gender variable, in favour of males, and no statistically significant difference attributed to the place of residence variable. The results also revealed a high level of intellectual security. Additionally, there was a positive and statistically significant relationship between the study participants' scores on the overall political values scale and all its dimensions and their scores on the overall intellectual security scale. Conclusions: Political values play a crucial role in shaping a society's culture as they influence people's attitudes and behaviours on a variety of social and political issues. Therefore, reaching political consensus requires educating students about political principles. This supports the political system, prevents political unrest, encourages stability among diverse social groups, and fosters national belonging.