A study on applications of the structural equation modeling to the analysis of how the influential factors affect the Chinese citizens´ scientific literacy and a comparative investigation

This paper is based on data of China Civic Scientific literacy Survey in 2010, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to extract factors of Engagement (public engagement of SP environment) and Information (the information sources of S&T).; using the structural equation modeling (SEM) to build the model of civic scientific literacy and its influential factors. It examines a quantitative description of how these influential factors affect the Chinese citizens´ scientific literacy by using the structural equation model to test the reliability and validity and makes a comparative research with the work done by American researchers. It summarizes different social context in US and China result in different influential factors which affect civic scientific literacy. It has made an attentive effort to improve the level of Chinese citizens scientific literacy and Chinese public understanding of science.