Linking participation in occupying protest, civic engagement, and approval of government among college students in Hong Kong

While participation in occupying protest is publicly remarkable, its impact on participants’ approval of government, is empirically uncharted. Meanwhile, current research and theory have not been consistent about the impacts of protest participation specifically and civic engagement generally. As the impacts are particularly of concern to college education and democratization, the present study surveyed 527 college students in the Chinese metropolis of Hong Kong to clarify the impacts. Results reveal that both occupying protest participation and civic engagement increase since the participation tended to reduce approval of government substantially. Such reduction reflects competing commitment between government and protest and civic organizations. The results thus show that the participation and engagement represent challenges to government to meet participants’ concerns.