Abstract
This study examines the relationship between student Self-Governance Networks (SGN) and Civic Participation Outcomes (CPO) using a network-based analytical framework. Data were collected from 237 student governance participants at a regional university in eastern China and analyzed using Social Network Analysis (SNA), Multivariate Regression (MR), and Machine Learning (ML) classification. The SGN displayed a modular network comprising 6 functional communities, including central administration, academic councils, disciplinary bodies, and interest-based organizations. Structural analysis revealed a hierarchical hub-and-spoke configuration, with the central student government serving as the primary bridge across communities, while peripheral groups remained comparatively isolated. Centrality measures varied systematically across roles, with formal leadership positions occupying structurally advantaged positions. Regression analyses controlling for demographics confirmed that network position significantly predicted civic engagement, with eigenvector centrality and the Community E–I Index emerging as consistent predictors across results. ML models, particularly XGBoost, achieved strong predictive accuracy (accuracy = 0.781, AUC-ROC = 0.842), indicating that network features reliably differentiate engaged from non-engaged students. These findings indicate that the civic benefits of governance participation are not uniformly distributed but depend on an individual’s structural position, with ties to central actors and cross-community linkages enhancing involvement. The study outlines theoretical contributions and practical implications for governance design and civic education.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Timidi, E. T. & Okuro, G. The power of education in shaping democratic citizenship and good governance. Stud. Humanit. Educ. 5 (2), 52–62 (2024).
Thelma, C. C. Effects of civic education on youth participation in democratic practices: A case of youths in selected constituencies of Lusaka District, Zambia (2024).
Fatoki, O. S. A comparison of three approaches to promoting Youth Civic engagement (Master’s thesis, Villanova University) (2024).
Lu, K. J., Umbelino, G. K., Carlson, S. E. & Easterday, M. W. DeliberationWorks: a deliberation system for developing capacities in civic organizing. Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact. 9 (2), 1–29 (2025).
Jerome, L., Hyder, F., Hilal, Y. & Kisby, B. A systematic literature review of research examining the impact of citizenship education on active citizenship outcomes. Rev. Educ. 12(2), e3472 (2024).
Fenn, N., Sacco, A., Monahan, K., Robbins, M. & Pearson-Merkowitz, S. Examining the relationship between civic engagement and mental health in young adults: a systematic review of the literature. J. Youth Stud. 27 (4), 558–587 (2024).
Poirier, D. J. Community-university engagement in Canada: boundary spanner practice (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia) (2024).
Nesbitt, H., Hamilton, M., Ulibarri, N. & Williamson, M. Operationalizing the social capital of collaborative environmental governance with network metrics. Environ. Res. Lett. 19 (11), 113003 (2024).
Belrhiti, Z. et al. Unravelling collaborative governance dynamics within healthcare networks: a scoping review. Health Policy Plann. 39 (4), 412–428 (2024).
Bodin, Ö. Collaborative environmental governance: achieving collective action in social-ecological systems. Science 357 (6352), eaan1114 (2017).
Vătămănescu, E. M., Bratianu, C., Dabija, D. C. & Popa, S. Capitalizing online knowledge networks: from individual knowledge acquisition towards organizational achievements. J. Knowl. Manage. 27 (5), 1366–1389 (2023).
Lin, Z. et al. Structural hole theory in social network analysis: a review. IEEE Trans. Comput. Social Syst. 9 (3), 724–739 (2021).
Georgiou, I. Teaching social network analysis. Int. J. Manage. Educ. 21 (2), 100816 (2023).
Blumenschein, D. & Hannisdal, B. Social network analysis and educational change: unravelling the role of innovative teaching staff in a higher education environment. Stud. High. Educ. 49 (12), 2827–2843 (2024).
Jerez-Villota, E., Jurado, F. & Moreno-Llorena, J. Understanding information propagation in online social networks: a systematic mapping study. IEEE Access (2025).
Dauer, J. M., Sorensen, A. E. & Wilson, J. Students’ civic engagement self-efficacy varies across socioscientific issues contexts. In Frontiers in Education (Frontiers Media SA, 2021.
Strait, J., Turk, J. & Nordyke, K. J. Pedagogy of civic engagement, high-impact practices, and eService-Learning. In eService-Learning 7–19 (Routledge, 2023).
Piscopo, A., Siebes, R. & Hardman, L. Predicting sense of community and participation by applying machine learning to open government data. Policy Internet. 9 (1), 55–75 (2017).
Kyriazos, T. & Poga, M. Application of machine learning models in social sciences: managing nonlinear relationships. Encyclopedia 4 (4), 1790–1805 (2024).
Schoon, I., Shukla, S., Verma, S., Terol, E. & Da Cunha, J. M. The COVID-19 pandemic and young people’s civic engagement: a scoping review. J. Res. Adolesc. 35 (1), e13039. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.13039 (2025).
Ahmed, A. M. et al. Civic engagement opportunities and challenges in qatar: a quantitative assessment of university students’ views. J. Coll. Character. 25 (4), 329–353 (2024).
Magill, K. R. & Davis Smith, V. Creating space for transformational community engagement: examining locally focused Curriculum, Partnerships, and praxis. Social Stud. 115 (4), 219–232 (2024).
Thelma, C. C. Transformative approaches to teaching and learning civic education: a case of selected secondary schools in Lusaka District, Zambia. Int. J. Res. (IJR). 11 (7), 20–35 (2024).
Angwaomaodoko, E. Exploring civic engagement through Student-Led initiatives. Int. Res. Educ. 12, 1. https://doi.org/10.5296/ire.v12i2.21934 (2024).
Ahmad, N. et al. University students’ civic engagement: the influencing factors. Malaysian J. Social Sci. Humanit. (MJSSH) 7, e001626. https://doi.org/10.47405/mjssh.v7i8.1626 (2022).
Owen, D. & Irion-Groth, A. Preparing Students for Civic Engagement through Project Citizen (Springer, 2024).
Bangani, S. Academic libraries’ support for quality education through community engagement. Inform. Dev. 40 (4), 590–601 (2024).
Schulz, W. et al. Aspects of students’ civic engagement. In Education for Citizenship in Times of Global Challenge (Springer, 2025).
Fong, C. P. & To, S. M. Civic engagement, social support, and sense of meaningfulness in life of adolescents living in Hong kong: implications for social work practice. Child Adolesc. Soc. Work J. 41 (1), 161–173 (2024).
Doğan, M. & Arslan, H. Graduate student engagement and digital governance in higher education. Educ. Sci. 15 (6), 682. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15060682 (2025).
Suhariyanto, D. & Rozak, A. Political Participation, civic Education, and social media on generation z’s political engagement. Eastasouth J. Social Sci. Humanit. 2 (2), 161. https://doi.org/10.58812/esssh.v2i02.455 (2025).
Laumann, E. O., Marsden, P. V. & Prensky, D. The boundary specification problem in network analysis. Res. Methods Social Netw. Anal. 61, 87 (1989).
Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications (Springer, 1994).
Doolittle, A. & Faul, A. C. Civic engagement scale: a validation study. Sage Open. 3 (3), 2158244013495542 (2013).
Putnam, R. D. Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community (Touchstone Books/Simon & Schuster, 2000). https://doi.org/10.1145/358916.361990.
Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications (Cambridge University Press, 1994). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815478.
Borgatti, S. P. & Halgin, D. S. On network theory. Organ. Sci. 22 (5), 1168–1181. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0641 (2011).
Dai, Y., Tong, X. & Jia, X. Executives’ legal expertise and corporate innovation. Corp. Governance: Int. Rev. 32 (6), 954–983. https://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12578 (2024).
Sun, X., Guo, B., Yang, Y. & Pan, Y. Time for a change! Uprooting users embedded in the status quo from habitual decision-making. Decis. Support Syst. 189, 114371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2024.114371 (2025).
Wu, X., Li, L., Tao, X., Yuan, J. & Xie, H. Towards the explanation consistency of citizen groups in happiness prediction via factor decorrelation. IEEE Trans. Emerg. Top. Comput. Intell. 9 (2), 1392–1405. https://doi.org/10.1109/TETCI.2025.3537918 (2025).
Liu, Y., Cao, S. & Chen, G. Research on the Long-term mechanism of using public service platforms in National smart Education—based on the double reduction policy. Sage Open. 14, 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241239471 (2024).
Deng, Q., Chen, X., Lu, P., Du, Y. & Li, X. Intervening in negative emotion contagion on social networks using reinforcement learning. IEEE Trans. Comput. Social Syst. 2025, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSS.2025.3555607 (2025).
Huang, C. et al. How does social support detected automatically in discussion forums relate to online learning burnout? The moderating role of students’ self-regulated learning. Comput. Educ. 227, 105213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2024.105213 (2025).
Wang, Y., Wang, Z. & Zhao, F. Integrating Node-Place model with Shapley additive explanation for metro ridership regression. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst. 2025, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2025.3546471 (2025).
Peng, Y., Zhao, Y., Dong, J. & Hu, J. Adaptive opinion dynamics over community networks when agents cannot express opinions freely. Neurocomputing 618, 129123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2024.129123 (2025).
Dutta, S. & Bhatia, V. Institutional belonging: the role of social capital. In Student Belonging in Higher Education 147–166 (Routledge, 2025).
Li, X. & Zhao, G. Democratic involvement in higher education: a study of Chinese student e-participation in university governance. High. Educ. Policy. 33 (1), 65–87 (2020).
Patrick, J. Student leadership and student government. Res. Educ. Adm. Leadersh. 7 (1), 1–37 (2022).
Rejubi, P. E. R., Laura, A. & Zoltán, R. Participation of students in all areas of governance in higher education institutions. Int. J. Cogn. Res. Sci. Eng. Educ. 12 (2), 437–449 (2024).
Tsoni, R., Tolika, M., Karapiperis, D. & Verykios, V. From volunteers to voters: Machine learning insights into citizen engagement. In Proceedings of the 28th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Progress in Computing and Informatics . 358–363 (2024).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data CurationWriting - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization : Jing Liu, Putu Kerti Nitiasih, Made Hery Santosa, Putu Nanci Riastini.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, J., Nitiasih, P.K., Santosa, M.H. et al. Network based analysis of student self governance networks and predictive role in civic participation outcomes. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34205-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34205-x
