The Influence of Developmental Contexts in Adolescent’s Expected Sociopolitical Participation through the Sense of Unity: An Analysis of the Mediation Model Invariance through Sex, Age, and Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

Civic engagement plays a positive role in adolescent wellbeing, as well as being the basis for maintaining a democratic society. This research analyzed how perceived support from developmental contexts contributes to adolescent civic engagement –assessed through their expectations of future sociopolitical participation–, mediated by sense of unity, and differences according to sex, age, and socioeconomic status. The sample included 3,715 participants (13–18 years old) from the 2019 OPINA Barometer who were selected using multistage random sampling stratified by conglomerates. The measures assessed sex, age, family, friends, classmates, and teacher support, the expectations of future sociopolitical participation, and sense of unity. Socioeconomic status was assessed by the Family Affluence Scale (FAS). Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, mean comparisons, and structural equation models using bootstrapping and measurement invariance. Results showed developmental contexts to significantly affect expected sociopolitical participation only through the mediator role of the sense of unity. In addition, peer support (both friends and classmates) showed a stronger direct influence on sense of unity –and indirect influence on the expectations of future sociopolitical participation– than family and teachers. The model was invariant across sex, age, and FAS. This research highlights that a sense of unity, derived from feeling part of a larger dependable structure, is crucial for establishing behaviors in the interest of the common good, and that this social connectedness is learned in the most immediate developmental contexts, specifically, that of peers.

The Social Self-Efficacy Scale for Spanish and Portuguese (13–18-Year-Olds) Adolescents: Psychometric Properties and Measurement Invariance

“…Once obtaining results on the scale’s reliability and validity in Spanish and Portuguese adolescents, mean scores of both groups were examined, taking into consideration sex, age, and country. Results showed that Spanish adolescents score higher than Portuguese, coinciding with research by Salado et al (2023). However, we must be cautious when interpreting these results given that there is a noticeable lack of prior research comparing the social self-efficacy scale in both countries.…”

¿Influye la comunicación sobre asuntos sociales y políticos en la eficacia política interna y en las expectativas de participación sociopolítica de los adolescentes españoles?

“…En este sentido, adaptan la creencia de que la política está más asociada al género masculino aumentando aún más la brecha de género en las facetas de socialización política (Arens & Watermann, 2017). En cuanto a las puntuaciones en las expectativas de las chicas sobre su participación futura en asuntos sociopolíticos, está también constatada por estudios previos (Gaby, 2017;Salado et al,2021). Creemos que, debido a que los ítems de la escala utilizada miden en mayor medida asuntos de índole social, se puede afirmar que puede existir un mayor compromiso social de las chicas a diferencia de un mayor compromiso político en los chicos (Cicognani et al, 2012; Wray-Lake & Shubert, 2019).…”

Does Family Material Affluence Affect the Future Socio-political Participation of Adolescents and Their Concerns About Social Issues? An Approach From Structural Equation Modeling and Gender Invariance

“…Thus, parents tend to foster caregiving values and concern for others to a higher degree in girls than in boys (Wray-Lake et al, 2012). This causes girls to have more social concerns, help others, and participate in activities such as volunteering (Gaby, 2017), or have future expectation of participating in social issues (Salado et al, 2022), whereas boys’ interests are more related to political issues such as the intention of voting in the future or following news on different media platforms (Wray-Lake et al, 2020). Moreover, gender differences have also been found in adolescents’ concerns with social issues, with girls showing more concerns for issues like racism, hunger, poverty, and crime and violence compared to their male peers (Oosterhoff et al, 2020).…”