The Formation of Party Preference in Adolescence and Early Adulthood: How and When Does It Occur in the Multiparty Context of the Netherlands?

Abstract

This cohort-sequential panel study on Dutch youths (N = 3394) and their parents examined the formation of party preference between age 12 and 25. Specifically, it aimed to pinpoint the most formative component and age in a multiparty context. Opinionation, stability and correlates were examined for three components of party preference: party identification, voting intention and left-right identification. Results revealed that most youths formed a preference at some point during their early life. The 6-year stability of party preference was already substantial during early adolescence and increased until early adulthood. Party preference became increasingly related to youths' social characteristics and issue attitudes with age, but parents remained important. Whereas studies from two-party systems emphasized the importance of party identification, this study suggested that left-right identification may instead predominate the early formation, intergenerational transmission and life-course stability of party preference in the Netherlands. The most formative period was around age 18.

How (often) do voters change their consideration sets?

“…Their presence is consistent with the observation that left-right is the primary long-term determinant of voting behaviour in many West-European countries (e.g., Van der Eijk & Franklin, 1996;Tillie & Fennema, 1998) and that most voters vote for either a leftist or a rightist party in subsequent elections (Van der Meer et al, 2015). More generally, the structuring and stabilizing effect of ideological blocks of parties that was observed in our analysis is consistent with the observation that left-right orientation is the main driving force behind early adolescent formation, intergenerational transmission, and life-course stability of party preferences in countries like the Netherlands (Percheron & Jennings, 1981;Rico & Jennings, 2015;Rekker et al, 2018). Interestingly, the analyses also revealed that ideological camps can be used to detect how some parties fall outside the regular pattern of electoral competition.…”

“…For instance, a study among Dutch voters showed that the stability across six years was rather strong for attitudes towards redistribution, a symbol of the socio-economic left-right dimension, as well as for attitudes towards multiculturalism, a symbol of the cultural dimension (over-time correlation coefficients equalled 0.57 and 0.69, respectively; Rekker et al, 2015). Left-right selfclassification in the same period was also rather stable, as only one out of ten voters moved from the left to the right or vice versa (over-time correlation coefficient equalled 0.59 ;Rekker et al, 2018). Likewise, an American study found strong stability across a 17-year period for party identification (over-time correlation coefficient equalled 0.72; Sears & Funk, 1999).…”

“…Research on youths shows that stable political orientations can be traced back to a formative period during adolescence and early adulthood (e.g., Rekker et al, 2015Rekker et al, , 2018Rekker, 2016).…”

Dealignment, realignment and generational differences in The Netherlands

“…While scholars disagree, for the development of political orientations, the formative years are roughly between 12 and 25. The strongest learning effects take place around the age of 18 (Bartels and Jackman 2014;Rekker et al 2019;Schuman and Rodgers 2004).…”

Explaining youth radicalism as a positioning of the self at opposite extremes

“…Rico and Jennings, 2016). Rekker et al (2019) found that, although young people develop their own social status as well as an educational and professional career after the formative age of 18, the parents' influence remains. In fact, most young people are said to build on their parents' attitudes, often taking on a more extreme stance (Slootman and Tillie, 2006).…”