The intergenerational transmission of participation in collective action: The role of conversation and political practices in the family

Abstract

In this study, we examined the intergenerational transmission of collective action from parents to children. Using a mixed‐method approach combining quantitative and qualitative analysis, we analysed data from 100 dyads of activist parents in Chile (involved in the mobilizations against the dictatorship during the 1980s) and their adult children (N = 200). The quantitative analysis addressed the role of conversations about politics in the family. The results provided evidence of a direct association between those conversations and the frequency of participation in conventional and radical actions by the children, and an indirect association via children’s knowledge about parental involvement in past social movements. The qualitative phase, which used interviews and thematic analysis on a subsample of 24 dyads (N = 48), confirmed the role of political conversations, but also revealed the influence of other factors such as cultural consumption and joint political participation. This phase allowed the identification of factors that facilitate or hinder family transmission. Overall, the study highlights the relevance of family as a critical site of socialization that enables the intergenerational transmission of protest.

The Role of Family in the Intergenerational Transmission of Collective Action

“…The unanticipated finding that children's participation in radical action in Study 1 was predicted directly by parents' descriptive norms (i.e., parents' self-reported past and present participation), and not indirectly through injunctive norms, suggests that familial influences may work through slightly different normbased mechanisms for conventional and radical action, depending on the context experienced by parents when they participated in the past. Parents' political participation during the dictatorship (a time where all political actions were banned and repressed) may have prompted those parents to discourage their children from participating in radical forms of collective actions, which could be perceived as risky and dangerous (Cornejo et al, 2020). Parents' past participation still directly predicts radical collective action among their children, despite possible parental disapproval.…”

“…In addition, Study 2 provided evidence of reciprocal influences between family descriptive and injunctive norms and between participation in conventional collective action and injunctive family norms. Regarding the latter effect, it may be that participating in conventional collective actions prompts family conversations about that participation (Cornejo et al, 2020), which further reveals or amplifies parents' approval of such action. Thus, the dynamic between collective action participation and family normative influences may cycle forward into future collective action participation through changes in perceptions of family injunctive norms.…”

Following Peers or School Rules: The Effect of Social Norms on the Behavior toward Gender Inequality

“…Así, podría establecerse una norma social de autoeficacia ante la desigualdad de género (Bandura, 1997;Luengo Kanacri & Jimenez-Moya, 2017;Tilano et al, 2021), es decir, podría instalarse la norma de que es posible reconocer y actuar de forma eficaz en contra de la desigualdad. Para aumentar el efecto positivo de estas intervenciones y políticas públicas, deberían realizarse de forma transversal en los centros educativos de todos los niveles, e involucrando a las familias, otro de los agentes socializadores más relevantes en temas relacionados con el cambio social (e.g., Cornejo et al, 2020). Futuros estudios deben focalizarse en estudiar en mayor profundidad el efecto de las normas del colegio en los y las estudiantes.…”

Investigating the Quality of Data Using Situated Learning Theory and Communication Mediation Model: PLS-SEM Approach to Estimate the Reliability and Validity of the Constructs

“…Each item has reached its recommended levels (0.50). Specifically, 6 items submitted for the family communicative environment (Shah et al, 2017;Kim, 2019;Cornejo et al, 2020), only 4 items have loadings above 0.50. Similarly, classroom activities originally have 5 items but only 4 of them with loadings above 0.50 were retained (Ohme et al, 2020).…”