Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study, 1965-1997: Youth Wave IV, 1997 (original) (raw)
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Civic and political engagement in youth: Findings and prospects
Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 2017
This paper reviews the research that has been conducted into youth civic and political engagement since 2010. We begin by noting the claim that youth are not sufficiently engaged either civically or politically. We argue that this claim is probably incorrect: rather than using conventional forms of political participation, youth today are often engaged through nonconventional and civic means instead. We also indicate at the outset some important cautions about the interpretation of research findings in this field, in particular the need to consider the kinds of political issues with which youth are involved, the moments in time at which they are involved, and the societal contexts in which their involvement occurs. We argue that these specificities mean that it might be difficult or even impossible to construct a unified model or comprehensive understanding of youth civic and political engagement. The review then considers recent research findings on the role of micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors in influencing youth engagement. Micro-level factors include political interest, efficacy, ideologies, values, and identity; meso-level factors include the family, school, peers, and the neighborhood; while macro-level factors include political, cultural, economic, legal, and institutional factors. We also review recent findings on the role of young people’s demographic positioning, the effects that social media might be playing in transforming youth engagement, and how political parties can actively mobilize youth. We conclude that young people are far from being apathetic and uninterested in politics, but that they need to find ways to be involved that are meaningful to them. We also indicate some possible future lines of research that could be profitably pursued.
Political and civic engagement development in adolescence
Journal of adolescence, 2012
This study explored whether discussions about the media, when positively linked to interest in the news media, were related to adolescents' current and future civic engagement. A sample of 2638 adolescents (age M ¼ 17, SD ¼ 1.2), who participated in a school-based study on positive socialization, completed self-report measures on interest in the news media and discussions about the media with parents and friends. Current civic engagement was measured by involvement in volunteering and civic commitments. Future civic engagement was measured by intentions to participate in civic activities in the future. The results showed that more interpersonal discussions about the media and higher interest in the news media both predicted higher civic engagement. Positive links between discussions about the media and current civic engagement were partly mediated by interest in the news media. In addition, interest in the news media together with current civic engagement fully mediated a positive link between discussions about the media and future civic engagement. Moderating effects of gender were observed, with discussions about the media a better predictor of boys' interest in the news media, and current civic engagement a better predictor of girls' future civic engagement. Ó
Experiments in political socialization: Kids Voting USA as a model for civic education reform
This report describes how an innovative curriculum promoted the civic development of high school students along with parents by stimulating news media attention and discussion in families. Evidence is based on a three-year evaluation of Kids Voting USA, an interactive, election-based curriculum. Political communication in the home increased the probability of voting for students when they reached voting age during the 2004 election. Thus, the interplay of influences from school and family magnified curriculum effects in the short term and sustained them in the long term. This bridging of the classroom with the living room suggests how Kids Voting offers a model for reforming civic education in the United States. Data are derived from a series of natural field experiments, beginning with interviews of 491 student-parent pairs in 2002. We evaluate the curriculum as it was taught in the fall of that year in El Paso County, CO, with Colorado Springs as the largest city; Maricopa, County, AZ, which includes the Phoenix region; and Broward/Palm Beach counties, FL, the epicenter for the ballot-recount saga of 2000. Students who were juniors or seniors in 2002 were interviewed in the fall/winter of 2002, 2003, and 2004. They were all of voting age by the fall of 2004, allowing us to determine whether participation in the curriculum in 2002 affected turnout in the presidential election two years later. We also interviewed one parent from each family each year. We examined the voting records in the four counties to provide a definitive assessment of whether the curriculum increased the likelihood of voting. Finally, we supplemented the panel survey data with qualitative insights obtained from focus group interviews. Findings address the following research questions. WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF IMPACT IN CIVIC DEVELOPMENT? Even as a brief school intervention, taught only during the final weeks of the 2002 campaign, Kids Voting stimulated news attention, cognition, discussion with parents and friends, deliberative dispositions, and civic identity. These results held up despite a rigorous block of demographic controls. The strongest impacts involved discussion inside and outside the family. As neophyte citizens, KVUSA students were much more responsive to the civic environment, much more attuned to political messages flowing from media and schools, and more willing to share their knowledge and opinions with parents and friends. The sheer size of their discussion networks had grown significantly. We consequently judge the breadth of Kids Voting's immediate effects as impressive in light of prior studies showing modest influence from standard civic instruction. CAN KIDS VOTING ACT AS A CATALYST FOR CIVIC INVOLVEMENT IN THE LONG RUN? Perhaps the most striking results in this study involve outcomes in 2003, after the passage of one year. Not only did Kid Voting effects persist, they increased for some measures of cognition and deliberative habits, along with partisanship and ideology. The nature of Kids Voting influence involves the induction of habits that are self-perpetuating. From this perspective, we can evaluate KVUSA as a successful catalyst for deliberative democracy. Students remained receptive to independent learning opportunities that came along later, such as new controversies or the eruption of political debate at home or with friends. Many of these effects waned when measured in 2004, but Kids Voting influence retained statistical significance for attention to Internet news, frequency of discussion with friends, testing opinions in conversations, support for unconventional activism, volunteering, and campus activism. While the curriculum did not affect voting in 2004 directly, it did animate the family as a setting for political discussion and media use, habits that eventually lead to voting. Parents got caught up in their children's enthusiasm for politics. Student-parent conversations stimulated by Kids Voting in 2002 predicted the following measures of parent civic involvement in 2004: news attention, cognition, discussion inside and outside the home, deliberative habits, support for www.civicyouth.org 3 CIRCLE Working Paper 49: August 2006 Experiments in Political Socialization: Kids Voting USA as a Model for Civic Education Reform unconventional participation, volunteering, and activism. DOES KIDS VOTING NARROW OR WIDEN GAPS IN CIVIC INVOLVEMENT? Kids Voting appears to provide an added boost for minority and low-income students. We found this to be the case with Hispanic students in Colorado in 2002 and low-SES students across the three sites in 2004. While the evidence of closing gaps is confined to just a few areas of civic development, the results replicate findings from our prior evaluation of Kids Voting as taught in San Jose, CA. WHAT COMPONENTS OF KIDS VOTING ARE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL? Of the 10 activities measured, three stood out as predictors of long-term civic development: frequent classroom discussions about election issues, teacher encouragement of opinion expression, and student participation in get-out-the-vote drives. These activities allow adolescents to practice communication skills and to build social confidence, dispositions that are easily transferred to other domains of civic engagement. RECOMMENDATIONS The single most important lesson from Kids Voting is the benefit of integrating influences from schools, families, media, elections, and peer groups. Working independently from each other, these entities are often ineffective as agents of political socialization, as many prior studies conclude. However, once they are integrated in an election-based curriculum, they create a kind of political immersion for students. Adolescents draw knowledge and opinions from multiple sources, allowing them to compare opinions and to contemplate their options for civic identity. The findings suggest the following recommendations. 1. Incorporate parents. Families represent proximal zone of learning in which students can practice the communication skills promoted in school. The inculcation of student-parent discussion about politics makes the home a powerful incubator for civic growth. 2. Deploy media in civic learning. Some Kids Voting activities directly involve media, as when students deconstruct political ads, but curriculum effects show how media use is promoted indirectly. When students realize they will be called upon to discuss or to debate a political issue in class, they turn to news media to arm themselves with knowledge. This utilitarian motivation to pay attention evolves into a genuine interest in the news, resulting in regular news consumption habits. 3. Teach to coincide with big political events. A great deal of research on civic education is based on the assumption of gradual, incremental learning. By contrast, the results here portray civic growth as occurring in spurts, in the context of the final weeks of election campaigns. Schools should take advantage of big political events such as elections, school board debates, and city council controversies. 4. Translate classroom instruction into community activism. Lesson plans should include activities such as student campaigns that mobilize adults to vote. Practicing political skills beyond walls of the classroom empowers adolescents and heightens political efficacy.
American Journal of Community Psychology, 2012
This study examines the roles of parental political socialization and the moral commitment to change social inequalities in predicting marginalized youths' (defined here as lower-SES youth of color) political participation. These issues are examined by applying structural equation modeling to a longitudinal panel of youth. Because tests of measurement invariance suggested racial/ethnic heterogeneity, the structural model was fit separately for three racial/ethnic groups. For each group, parental political socialization: discussion predicted youths' commitment to produce social change and for two groups, longitudinally predicted political participation. This study contributes to the literature by examining civic/political participation among disparate racial/ethnic groups, addresses an open scholarly question (whether youths' commitment to create social change predicts their ''traditional'' participation), and emphasizes parents' role in fostering marginalized youths' civic and political participation.
Macro Contextual Factors Linked to Youth Civic and Political Engagement
Youth Civic and Political Engagement, 2019
This chapter explores the macro factors that are linked to young people’s civic and political engagement. These include: the broad patterns of political and civic engagement that occur among adults within a country; the historical, cultural, economic, institutional and legal characteristics of a country; public policies on young people’s active citizenship; the legally specified minimum age for voting; the provision of youth organisations; the availability of a youth parliament within a country; the education policies and regulations that determine the quality of the formal education that young people receive within a country; the role that digital technology, the Internet and social media play in youth civic and political engagement; and youth mobilisation by politicians and political parties.
Journal of Adolescence, 2012
Drawing on data from a longitudinal cohort-sequential project the present study examined developmental trajectories of adolescents" attitudes toward political engagement and their willingness to participate in politics from grade 7 to 11 while accounting for the influence of school track and gender. Moreover, stabilities on the dependent variables were assessed. The results revealed differential trajectories regarding adolescents" educational level. Increases were mainly shown for students attending the college-bound school track. Generally, both orientations toward political behaviors were shown to become more stable throughout the adolescent years.
Journal of Adolescence
Research examining youths’ political development mostly focused on young people as a general group; comparatively less attention has been devoted to the examination of gender pathways toward citizenship. Two studies were conducted addressing (a) the role of parents’ participation and the moderating role of adolescent gender and age group (n = 1419) and (b) the role of adolescent social and civic participation and the moderating role of adolescent gender and type of school (n = 1871). Results confirmed the gender gap in political interest and in the use of the Internet for political participation, while no differences emerged for political activity and voting intentions. Adolescents’ political engagement and participation are influenced by parents’ participation (especially among girls) and by adolescents’ social and civic participation (especially among boys). The impact of adolescents’ social and civic participation on conventional participation (voting intentions) is partially mediated by sense of community and institutional trust.