A Comparative Study on Adolescent Political Development: The Relationship of Personal and Contextual Factors to Expected Political Participation in 34 Countries.

摘要

Based on political socialization theory, this dissertation investigated the relationship between political development factors (personal and micro-contextual factors related to political development) and two types of expected political participation (electoral and informal political participation) among adolescents in diverse national contexts. For this dissertation study, I drew on data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). I analyzed data about 14-year-old adolescents and schools in 34 countries using hierarchical linear modeling. The cross-national political development relationships I found can be broadly categorized into four patterns. First, some factors had consistent relationships with expected political participation regardless of the national context. The cross-nationally consistent relationships for expected electoral participation were almost the same as the cross-nationally consistent relationships for expected informal participation. Second, some factors showed consistent relationships with the outcome variables regardless of the national context. However, the cross-nationally consistent relationships for expected electoral participation were different from the cross-nationally consistent relationships for expected informal participation. Third, some factors had cross-nationally consistent relationships with one type of political participation, but cross-nationally inconsistent relationships with another type. Lastly, political development relationships varied across different countries. The majority of the predictors belong to this pattern. To summarize, I found differences in political development relationships across countries. That is, micro-level political development is influenced by macro contexts. Therefore, successful democratic citizenship education should be tailored to the multilevel contexts in which adolescents are situated. I also found that political development relationships were different according to the mode of political activism. This result implies that democratic citizenship education should be thoughtfully planned and implemented according to its goal--that is, its target outcomes. But, at the same time, I found that some factors were influential regardless of the national context and the type of political participation. It is possible that citizenship education promoting these factors contributes to an increase in adolescents' willingness to participate in multiple modes of political activism in diverse social and national contexts. Finally, I found a few national contexts that may be related to some of the cross-national relationships observed in this study.