Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 1

Parental Influence on
Adolescents Political Participation

By:

Glaizza Reyne O. Baldiviso

Saint Louis University

Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 2

I. INTRODUCTION

A.) BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Imagine a family at the dinner table. They are discussing the issues of the day, and learning
from each other as each person expresses a viewpoint. Now think of an identical family, but this
one discourages open discussion in favour of discipline and deference to the parents at the dinner
table. Could simple differences like these affect our political identities?

It turns out that yes, they do.

The family is often considered as the primary socialization context for young people, also
with regard to political attitudes and behaviors. Usually, young children will experience their first
political discussions or their first political activities together with their parents and/or siblings. In
the classical literature on political socialization, the family was considered as the most important
determinant of young peoples attitudes and behaviors (Davies, 1965; Langton, 1969; Dawson &
Prewitt, 1969; Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

Within the family, young people learn to fulfill their accepted social, gender and political
roles (Langton, 1969). As such, the intergenerational transmission of political attitudes and
behaviors was often portrayed as a mechanism to ensure social stability, leading to a strong
resemblance of attitudes between subsequent cohorts (Sapiro, 2004; Hooghe & Wilkenfeld 2007).
In general, young people indeed tend to share the political preferences and the beliefs of their
parents, and the correlation between the attitudes of parents and their offspring is usually quite
strong (Jennings & Niemi, 1968; Tedin, 1974).

Parents play an important role in the political socialization of their children (Hyman, 1959;
Jennings et al., 1968; Jennings, Stoker, & Bowers, 2001). The impact of parents has been
demonstrated for quite some attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. First, parents transmit political
knowledge, awareness, interest, norms and values to their children (Jaros, 1973; Langton, 1969;
Valentino & Sears, 1998). While in some families, political discussion will occur quite frequently,
in other families political topics tend to be avoided. Parents clearly stimulate the willingness and
ability to 5 acquire information (John, Halpern, & Morris, 2002; Eveland & Scheufele, 2000).
Although Hess and Torney (1967) argue that the family is only one of several socializing agents
and institutions, research has demonstrated that the family can have, and still has, a large impact
on the political attitudes of children (Hyman, 1959; Jennings et al., 2001). A general expectation
is that the socializing impact of parents is strongest at an early age, and it will tend to diminish as
children grow older. At that moment, other political socialization agents, like schools, peer groups
or voluntary associations, start to exert more influence on the value patterns of adolescents (Niemi
et al., 1978; Plutzer, 2002; Rosenstone & Hansen, 2003).

While most socialization studies tend to focus on the transmission of political attitudes,
there is equally strong evidence about the intergenerational transmission of political behavior
patterns. For political behavior too, we can assume the characteristics of young people are heavily
influenced by the life-style and the decisions of their parent: The politically richer the home
environment, the more likely an adult is to undertake some political activity other than voting
Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 3

(Verba, Burns, & Schlozman, 2003:9). With regard to behavior too, it is possible to distinguish
direct and indirect causal mechanisms (Fridkin, Kenney & Crittenden, 2006). Direct influence can
occur as a result of parents providing information to their children (John et al., 2002), of talking in
a positive and encouraging manner about politics with their children (McDevitt & Chaffee, 2002),
or by explicitly stimulating them to participate politically (Plutzer, 2002).

It has been suggested that a stable home environment, too, might have a positive effect on
the willingness of young people to participate in political life. Davies (1965) and Clarke (1973)
already argued that the (long-term) absence of one of the parents could lead to lower levels of
political awareness, and although this insight might have become outdated in contemporary
society, more recent studies still suggest that political discussions occur less frequently in single-
parent families (Gimpel, Lay, & Schuknecht, 2003).

Finally, a number of authors (Tedin, 1974; Jennings et al., 2001) have argued that the
transmission of political attitudes of parents to young people is mediated by the level of political
interest of young people. Young people are more readily exposed to socialization experiences if
they have high levels of interest to start with.

FRAMEWORK (Definition)

Knowledge and attitudes of

Parental Influence SLU students towards
Philippine Politics

The main dependent variable is the political participation of the respondents. In this respect,
the researcher opted for a broad definition of political participation that also includes various
protest and engagement acts, unconventional participation, political consumerism and life-style
politics (Barnes & Kaase, 1979; Stolle, Hooghe & Micheletti, 2005; Dalton 2007). The
independent variables in the analysis all refer to the way the respondents ascertain their familial
background, and their interaction with their parents.

HYPOTHESIS

The overview of the literature provides the researcher with four basic hypotheses about the
parental influence on political participation. Parents can have an effect on the political participation
of their offspring by:
H1: providing them with information
H2: talking with their children about politics
H3: participating themselves

Is there a relationship between the level of parental influence and the knowledge and
attitude of SLU students regarding Philippine politics?
HA: There is a significant relationship between the level of parental influence and the knowledge
and attitude of SLU students with regards to Philippine politics.
Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 4

HO: There is no significant relationship between the level of parental influence and the knowledge
and attitude of SLU students with regards to Philippine politics

METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this research is to know if parents have influence on the knowledge and
attitudes of the students towards politics.

The type of research that is used in this study is quantitative research. The researcher
examined the phenomenon through observations in numerical representations and through
statistical analysis. Online questionnaires were sent out to respondents for the statistical
representation of the findings in the study. Online survey through questionnaires are regarded by
the researcher as great option because of the following advantages: Low costs, automation and
real-time access, less time, convenience for respondents, design flexibility, no interviewer.

The researcher analyzes the data with the help of statistics. The researcher is hoping the
numbers will yield an unbiased result that can be generalized to some larger population.

The research procedure will be non-random because all respondents are only limited to
SLU students. The research will be cross sectional because it will only last for a short period of
time.

Data were collected through Questionnaire. The questionnaire included 5 questions

regarding parental influence. The researcher feel safe in developing a simple scale for these items,
ranging from 0 to 5 (1=Never 2=Rarely 3=Sometimes 4=Often 5=Very Often). The rating scale
was used to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of students regarding politics.

Data were also collected through surveys that were sent through emails to atleast minimum
of 30 respondents and all of them were SLU students.

The main dependent variable is the knowledge and attitude of the respondents towards
politics. The independent variables in the analysis all refer to the way the respondents ascertain
their familial background, and their interaction with their parents to be specific, the political
influence of parents.

The results of the research are to be interpreted in a descriptive manner and interpretation
is based on collected answers and would not be generalize. For data analysis, the researcher used
the SPSS version 20 which includes the measure of central tendency of the frequency with its
mean, median, mode and its standard deviation.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

General Problem:
What are the respondents notions about politics basing on their knowledge and attitudes
and does parental influence affect the knowledge and attitudes of students toward politics.
Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 5

Specific problems:
1. Does parents tend to talk in a negative or a positive manner about politics?
2. Does adolescents actually receive political information from their parents?
3. What is the impact of voluntary activity by the parents towards politics to their children?
4. What is the intensity of political discussion in the family?
5. Does parents encourage open communication and ideas about politics

The general problem is intended to know what the respondents notion about politics are
and does parents affect students knowledge and attitudes towards politics. Behavioralism was
used in this general problem and specific problems.
First, the researcher wants to determine whether parents tend to talk in a negative or a
positive manner about politics. Second, the researcher wants to determine whether adolescents
actually receive political information from their parents. Third, the questionnaire included an item
on voluntary activity by the parents. Fourth is to determine the intensity of political discussion in
the family. Fifth is to test whether parents encourage open communication and ideas about politics.
Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 6

RESULTS
I. Profile of Respondents (Descriptive)

Characteristics Frequency Percent

Age
Mean 20
Gender
Male 19 51.4
Female 16 43.2

The mean age of the respondents is 20 which means that the researcher interviewed
mostly young population. The researcher surveyed 16 females and 19 males. Overall
the researcher have 35 respondents.

II. Mean Level of IV (Continuous)

Mean Standard Qualitative
Deviation Interpretation
IVcmean 2.9429 1.02736 Average

The independent variable which is the parental influence has a mean of 2.9429 with
a standard deviation of 1.02736. This only means that parents have an average influence
on the students knowledge and attitude towards politics.

III. Mean Scores of Knowledge and Attitudes regarding Philippine Politics due to
parental influence.

Mean Score Standard Qualitative

Deviation Interpretation
Knowledge scores 6.6286 1.59200 Average
Attitudes 2.7714 .87735 Average

The mean scores of political knowledge of students due to parental influence is

6.6286 with a standard deviation of 1.59200 which is interpreted as average while the
mean scores of political attitudes of students due to parental influence is 2.7714 with a
standard deviation of .87735 which is also average.

IV. Correlation of Mean Scores of Political Knowledge of Students and Level of

Parental Influence
Characteristic Mean Score Standard Qualitative r (p)
Deviation Interpretation
Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 7

Knowledge of 6.6286 1.59200 Average

Students

Level of 2.9429 1.02736 Very Low

parental
influence

Correlation .753 (.049)

between
Knowledge
and parental
influence

The mean scores of political knowledge of students is 6.6286 with a standard

deviation of 1.59200 which is interpreted as average while the mean of the level of
parental influence is 2.9429 with a standard deviation of 1.02736 which is interpreted
as very low. The correlation between knowledge and parental influence is .753 which
represents a strong or large correlation. A strong uphill (positive) linear relationship.

V. Correlation of Mean Scores of Attitudes Regarding Politics and Level of

Parental Influence
Characteristic Mean Score Standard Qualitative r (p)
Deviation Interpretation
Attitudes 2.9429 1.02736 Average
regarding
Philippine
Politics

Level of
parental
influence 2.7714 .87735 Average

Correlation
between .713 (.039)
Attitudes and
parental
influence

The mean scores of political attitude of students is 2.9429 with a standard deviation
of 1.02736 which is interpreted as average while the mean of the level of parental influence
is 2.7714with a standard deviation of .87735 which is interpreted as average. The
correlation between students attitude and parental influence is .713 which represents a
strong or large correlation. A strong uphill (positive) linear relationship.
Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 8

DISCUSSION
The results of the analyses suggest that discussion of politics within the family, and the
role model of parents who are actively engaged in voluntary activities themselves exert a powerful
effect on participation patterns of students. Despite the fact that the socialization effect of parents
has not been studied intensively in recent political science research, the results suggest that this
still remains a very influential socialization agent. With regard to the causal mechanism involved,
we can observe that receiving political information from ones parents obviously is not a necessary
condition to become actively involved in politics.

In general, the results of our analysis show stronger effects of discussion about politics than
of voluntary activity by the parents themselves. It has to be acknowledged that this partly might
be the effect of a measurement issue. If respondents report that they discuss politics with their
parents, there is clear face validity. There can be no discussion between parents and children,
without the children (and thus the respondents in this survey) being knowledgeable about it. We
can be less certain about the validity of the volunteering item. It might be that parents are in reality
actively involved in civic activities, but without their children knowing about it, or without them
labeling it as voluntary activity. The volunteering item, therefore, is more vulnerable for issues of
validity than the discussion item. There is another element involved: discussions within the family
about politics at least imply that parents and children do have time for one another, and that they
interact in a quite intensive manner. The fact that parents are involved in voluntary activities, on
the other hand, might also imply that they are often absent from the house, which would imply that
the socialization experiences within the family might become less intensive and therefore less
effective. In extreme cases, with a heavily involvement in voluntary life by the parents, this might
even invoke negative reactions from the adolescents taking part in this survey.
Parental Influence on Adolescents Political Participation 9

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