IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v13y2025a9309.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Voices in the Margins: Exploring the Link Between Discrimination and Adolescents’ Political Involvement

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp Kleer

    (Department of Political Science, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany)

  • Simone Abendschön

    (Department of Political Science, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany)

  • Gema García-Albacete

    (Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain / Carlos III‐Juan March Institute, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain)

  • Lidia Núñez

    (Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain / Carlos III‐Juan March Institute, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain)

  • David Sánchez

    (Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain / Carlos III‐Juan March Institute, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

Political interest is one of the main determinants of political participation. Understanding the development and the mechanisms involved in forming this crucial cognitive orientation is necessary for an enhanced understanding and a successful political integration of young people. We know that political interest starts forming at an early age and that this process depends on several social characteristics, i.e., socioeconomic and immigration background have proven to be a significant element. However, the direction of the differences in the political interest of adolescents with an immigrant background compared to native adolescents is disputed. At the same time, some studies present lower political interest levels for immigrant youth, and others found higher political interest levels. Our article explores whether these inconsistent findings are related to (a) different discrimination experiences and (b) the moderation effects of these discrimination experiences on one important correlate of political interest—social participation. We expect that experiences of discrimination represent an important determinant of political interest. Despite its importance, little attention has been paid to the mechanisms by which discrimination fosters political interest. We rely on data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), allowing us to account for a wide range of discrimination experiences of youth. We use linear regression models to examine the effect of discrimination experience on political interest. From our results, both discrimination experience and social participation positively affect youth’s political interest, but neither amplifies the other effect through suggested moderation.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Kleer & Simone Abendschön & Gema García-Albacete & Lidia Núñez & David Sánchez, 2025. "Voices in the Margins: Exploring the Link Between Discrimination and Adolescents’ Political Involvement," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 13.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v13:y:2025:a:9309
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.9309
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/9309
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/pag.9309?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jörg Dollmann, 2022. "The Political Integration of Immigrants: How Pre- and Postmigration Contexts Matter," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1091-1125, September.
    2. Ellen Quintelier & Jan W. Deth, 2014. "Supporting Democracy: Political Participation and Political Attitudes. Exploring Causality Using Panel Data," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 62, pages 153-171, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bimal Adhikari & Jeffrey King & Lie Philip Santoso, 2024. "The limits of shame: UN shaming, NGO repression, and women's protests," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 41(3), pages 197-217, May.
    2. Marieke Voorpostel & Hilde Coffé, 2015. "The Effect of Parental Separation on Young Adults’ Political and Civic Participation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 295-316, October.
    3. Lorraine Ryan & Thomas Turner, 2021. "Does work socialisation matter? Worker engagement in political activities, attachment to democracy and openness to immigration," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 125-144, March.
    4. Henrik Serup Christensen, 2019. "Boosting Political Trust with Direct Democracy? The Case of the Finnish Citizens’ Initiative," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 173-186.
    5. Oldřich Šubrt, 2022. "Relationship of Work-Related Stress and Offline Social Leisure on Political Participation of Voters in the United States," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-35, May.
    6. Henrik Serup Christensen, 2019. "Boosting Political Trust with Direct Democracy? The Case of the Finnish Citizens’ Initiative," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 173-186.
    7. Jennifer Oser, 2022. "How Citizenship Norms and Digital Media Use Affect Political Participation: A Two-Wave Panel Analysis," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(3), pages 206-218.
    8. Vanda Carreira & João Reis Machado & Lia Vasconcelos, 2016. "Engaging Citizen Participation—A Result of Trusting Governmental Institutions and Politicians in the Portuguese Democracy," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-11, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v13:y:2025:a:9309. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.