README file
Data Set Title: “CATCH-EyoU. Processes in Youth’s Construction of Active EU Citizenship. Italian Longitudinal (Wave 1 and 2) Questionnaires. EXTRACT. Cross-border friendships and European identity”
Data Set Authors: Elvira Cicognani (University of Bologna), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8653-290X; Peter Noack (University of Jena); Petr Macek (Masaryk University)
Data Set Contributors: Gabriele Prati (University of Bologna) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0749-183X; Davide Mazzoni (University of Milano-Bicocca), https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6607-5636.
Data Set Contact Person: Gabriele Prati (University of Bologna), https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0749-183X, gabriele.prati@unibo.it

Data Set License: this data set is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/  
Publication Year: 2019
Project Info: CATCH EyoU (Constructing AcTive CitizensHip with European YOUth: Policies, Practices, Challenges and Solutions), funded by European Union, Horizon 2020 Programme, Grant Agreement num. 649538, http://www.catcheyou.eu/.  
Data set Contents
The data set consists of: 
•	1 quantitative file saved in .csv format
“CATCHEyoU_WP7_Italian_LongitudinalFriendshipEUidentity”. It contains a spreadsheet with 24 variables taken from the Italian CATCH-EyoU Waves 1 and 2 data
•	1 README file 
README_CATCHEyoU_WP7_Italian_LongitudinalFriendshipEUidentity.rtf
Data set Documentation
•	Abstract
This dataset contains the underlying data of the following article published in the journal European Union Politics:
Prati, G., Cicognani, E., Mazzoni D. (in press) Cross-border friendships and collective European identity: A longitudinal study. European Union Politics.
The dataset consists of longitudinal quantitative data collected in Italy within Work Package 7 of the research project CATCH EyoU (Constructing AcTive CitizensHip with European YOUth: Policies, Practices, Challenges and Solutions). The sample consists of 1792 Italian adolescents and young adults between 15 and 30 years old. They participated in the study on a voluntary basis and filled paper and online questionnaires, after receiving an invitation from the researchers and a presentations of the aims of the study. The data was used in the analysis of the relationship between corss-border friendships and collective European identity. In particular, the following variables are included: age, age group (adolescent vs. young adults), gender, parents’ education, income, cross-border friendships, trust in the EU, Identification as European, participation at EU level, political beliefs about European Union, attitudes toward European Union, participants’ intentions to vote at the next EU parliamentary elections, political alienation.
This data is made available for open access in compliance with H2020 Program regulation, following the guidelines stipulated by the Data Management Plan adopted by the CATCH-EyoU research project. 

•	File specifics
The dataset file was generated through IBM SPSS Software. 

•	Codebook of variables 

Variable name	Variable description (item)	Values	
A_Age	[T1] How old are you?	Age in years
88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Gender		0 = Female
1 = Male
2 = Other
88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Edumoth	[T1] Mother's education	0 = I do not know
1 = Not completed lower secondary education
2 = Completed lower secondary education
3 = Completed upper secondary education
4 = Completed higher education
0; 88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Edufath	[T1] Father's education	0 = I do not know
1 = Not completed lower secondary education
2 = Completed lower secondary education
3 = Completed upper secondary education
4 = Completed higher education
0; 88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Income	[T1] Does the money your household has cover everything your family needs?	1 = Not at all; 
2 = Partly;
3 = Mostly
4 = Fully
88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Educom	[T1] What is the highest level of education you completed?	1 = Not completed lower secondary education
2 = Completed lower secondary education
3 = Completed upper secondary education
4 = Completed higher education
0; 88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Minor	[T1] National/ethnic majority or minority	0 = Majority
1 = Minority;
2 = Double identification;
88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Eurofr	[T1] How many of your friends live outside /country/ in other European countries?	1 = None
2 = Vey few
3 = Few
4 = Some
5 = Many
88; 99 = Missing values	
A_Itrust1	[T1] I trust the European Union.	1 = Strongly disagree
2 = Mostly disagree
3 = Neither disagree nor agree
4 = Mostly agree
5 = Strongly agree 
88; 99 = Missing values	
B_Itrust1	[T2] I trust the European Union.	1 = Strongly disagree
2 = Mostly disagree
3 = Neither disagree nor agree
4 = Mostly agree
5 = Strongly agree
88; 99 = Missing values	
EU_identity_2	Identification as European T2	88; 99 = Missing values	
EU_identity_1	Identification as European T1	88; 99 = Missing values	
age_groups	age groups	1 = Adolescents
2 = Young adults
88; 99 = Missing values	
ParticipationEUT1	Participation at EU level at T1	88; 99 = Missing values	
ParticipationEUT2	Participation at EU level at T2	88; 99 = Missing values	
EUviewT2	political beliefs about European Union at T2	88; 99 = Missing values	
EUviewT1	political beliefs about European Union at T1	88; 99 = Missing values	
SemEUT2	Attitudes toward the European Union  at T2	88; 99 = Missing values	
SemEUT1	Attitudes toward the European Union  at T1	88; 99 = Missing values	
Voting_intentions_EU_T2	participants’ intentions to vote at the next EU parliamentary elections	0 = No/I don’t know
1 = Yes
88; 99 = Missing values	
Voting_intentions_EU_T1	participants’ intentions to vote at the next EU parliamentary elections	0 = No/I don’t know
1 = Yes
88; 99 = Missing values	
Alienation_2	political alienation at T2	88; 99 = Missing values	
Alienation_1	political alienation at T1	88; 99 = Missing values