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Social Indicators Research

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19-03-2016

Stability and Change in Youths’ Political Interest

Authors: Silvia Russo, Håkan Stattin

Published in: Social Indicators Research | Issue 2/2017

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Abstract

Political interest is a key for the survival and development of democracies. Therefore, it is important to establish when political interest develops. We examined changes in political interest—when and in which directions—among youths between 13 and 28 years of age. We followed five age groups of Swedish youths over 2 years, with a total of 2621 participants. Analysis of stability coefficients supported the idea that political interest becomes more stable with age. From their early twenties, youths’ political interest was found to be as stable as has been earlier reported for adults. Among adolescents, the lowest stability rate was observed in the youngest cohort (ages 13–15). The results also showed that, when taking the increase in political interest into account, the proportion of youths losing their interest in politics corresponded to the proportion of youths gaining interest over time. On the whole, this study brings new insights on the development of political interest over time. It provides empirical evidence on when political interest is most susceptible to change and on how it is likely to change. Implications for research and intervention are discussed.

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Title: Stability and Change in Youths’ Political Interest
Authors: Silvia Russo
Håkan Stattin
Publication date: 19-03-2016
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Social Indicators Research / Issue 2/2017
Print ISSN: 0303-8300
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0921
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-016-1302-9

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