Attitudes toward political engagement and willingness to participate in politics: Trajectories throughout adolescence ^⋆

Abstract

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. Together, the findings confirmed adolescence to be a crucial period in life concerning the emergence, consolidation, and development of political points of view.

‘Democracy always comes first’: adolescents’ views on decision-making in everyday life and political democracy

“…Finally, previous studies have shown that educational level is related to adolescents' democratic views (Eckstein, Noack, and Gniewosz 2012;Flanagan et al 2005;Schulz et al 2010). The findings of our study partly contradict this finding.…”

“…With regard to educational track, students in college-bound tracks are often more positively oriented towards democracy, possess more comprehension of democracy, and have a better understanding of democratic institutions (such as parliament, constitution, and presidency) than those in vocational tracks (Eckstein, Noack, and Gniewosz 2012;Flanagan et al 2005;Schulz et al 2010). It is therefore relevant to take educational track and the related differences in social-economic and social-cultural background (OECD 2014) into account when studying adolescents' views on democratic decision-making.…”

“…Other studies have revealed the significant impact of education on adolescents' democratic views, and have claimed this as a stronger explanation for differences between young people than background characteristics such as gender, age, religiosity, and ethnicity (e.g. Flanagan et al 2005;Eckstein, Noack, and Gniewosz 2012;Schulz et al 2010). …”

Vliv navštěvované střední školy na občanské postoje středoškoláků v ČR

“…Janmaat (2011) zkoumal, zda jsou občanské kompetence mladých lidí provázány se sociálním a etnickým složením třídy, a zjistil, že rozdíly mezi úrovní občanských kompetencí jsou relativně větší v systémech charakterizovaných ranou selekcí na základě schopností. Eckstein et al (2012) zjistili, že postoje studentů z akademických větví se v čase zlepšovaly, zatímco postoje studentů nižších větví studia zůstávaly stabilní. Tento trend nebyl v našich datech pozorován.…”

Inequalities in the education system and the reproduction of socioeconomic disparities in voting in England, Denmark and Germany: the influence of country context, tracking and self-efficacy on voting intentions of students age 16–18

“…There has been research that explores the effect of tracking on CPE in continental Europe, where single-country studies have been carried out in Israel (Ichilov 2002), Belgium (Stevens 2002), the Netherlands (Ten Dam and Volman 2003), Sweden (Persson and Oscarsson 2010;Persson 2012) and Germany (Eckstein, Noack, and Gniewosz 2012). Our study comprises three countries: Denmark, England and Germany.…”