IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v8y2018i1p17-d135347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a Conceptualization of Young People’s Political Engagement: A Qualitative Focus Group Study

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Pontes

    (Department of Politics and International Relations, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

  • Matt Henn

    (Department of Politics and International Relations, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

  • Mark D. Griffiths

    (Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

Abstract

Disenchantment with politics and low electoral turnout does not mean young people are not engaged with politics. However, our understanding of what being ‘politically engaged’ entails is somewhat challenged by the lack of consensus concerning the definition of this particular concept. Furthermore, existing conceptualizations of political engagement and participation (offline and online) often center on a limited set of political action items, failing to realize that a person can be politically engaged but not participate in political actions. Despite attempts to understand how young people themselves define politics, there are insufficient youth specific explanations of what being politically engaged means. In the present study, focus groups including young people (18–24 years) were conducted to examine understandings of political engagement. Participants were also asked to group a set of items they considered most accurately assessed this construct. Using the results, a conceptualization is proposed taking into account young people’s definitions of political engagement; this suggests that young people consider political engagement to have emotional and cognitive dimensions but also to be conceptually distinct from political participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Pontes & Matt Henn & Mark D. Griffiths, 2018. "Towards a Conceptualization of Young People’s Political Engagement: A Qualitative Focus Group Study," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:1:p:17-:d:135347
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/1/17/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/8/1/17/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Russell J. Dalton, 2008. "Citizenship Norms and the Expansion of Political Participation," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56(1), pages 76-98, March.
    2. Matt Henn & Mark Weinstein & Sarah Forrest, 2005. "Uninterested Youth? Young People's Attitudes towards Party Politics in Britain," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 53(3), pages 556-578, October.
    3. Russell J. Dalton, 2008. "Citizenship Norms and the Expansion of Political Participation," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 56, pages 76-98, March.
    4. Matt Henn & Mark Weinstein & Sarah Forrest, 2005. "Uninterested Youth? Young People's Attitudes towards Party Politics in Britain," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 53, pages 556-578, October.
    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. Hilde Coffe & Catherine Bolzendahl, 2011. "Gender Gaps in Political Participation Across Sub-Saharan African Nations," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 245-264, June.
    2. Jennifer Oser & Marc Hooghe & Zsuzsa Bakk & Roberto Mari, 2023. "Changing citizenship norms among adolescents, 1999-2009-2016: A two-step latent class approach with measurement equivalence testing," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(5), pages 4915-4933, October.
    3. Jennifer Oser, 2017. "Assessing How Participators Combine Acts in Their “Political Tool Kits”: A Person-Centered Measurement Approach for Analyzing Citizen Participation," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 235-258, August.
    4. Tore Ellingsen & Benedikt Herrmann & Martin A. Nowak & David G. Rand & Corina E. Tarnita, 2012. "Civic Capital in Two Cultures: The Nature of Cooperation in Romania and USA," CESifo Working Paper Series 4042, CESifo.
    5. Jae Young Lim & Kuk-Kyoung Moon, 2020. "Examining the Moderation Effect of Political Trust on the Linkage between Civic Morality and Support for Environmental Taxation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-15, June.
    6. Piatak Jaclyn, 2023. "Do Sociocultural Factors Drive Civic Engagement? An Examination of Political Interest and Religious Attendance," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 185-204, April.
    7. Sofie Marien & Marc Hooghe & Ellen Quintelier, 2010. "Inequalities in Non‐institutionalised Forms of Political Participation: A Multi‐level Analysis of 25 countries," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58(1), pages 187-213, February.
    8. Li, Xuan, 2020. "The critical assessment of the youth policy and youth civic engagement in Denmark and three Danish municipalities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    9. Jesús Granados-Sánchez, 2023. "Sustainable Global Citizenship: A Critical Realist Approach," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, March.
    10. Piotr Koc, 2021. "Measuring Non-electoral Political Participation: Bi-factor Model as a Tool to Extract Dimensions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 271-287, July.
    11. Miquel Àngel Essomba & Maria Nadeu & Anna Tarrés, 2023. "Youth Democratic Political Identity and Disaffection: Active Citizenship and Participation to Counteract Populism and Polarization in Barcelona," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-13, November.
    12. Miki Fukuda & Eric Zusman, 2024. "Meaningful Youth Engagement in Sustainability Processes in Japan and Finland: A Comparative Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-20, July.
    13. Roberto Foa & Anna Nemirovskaya, 2014. "State Formation And Frontier Society: An Empirical Examination," HSE Working papers WP BRP 13/PS/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    14. Cato Waeterloos & Peter Conradie & Michel Walrave & Koen Ponnet, 2021. "Digital Issue Movements: Political Repertoires and Drivers of Participation among Belgian Youth in the Context of ‘School Strike for Climate’," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-19, September.
    15. Susan L. Prescott & Alan C. Logan & Glenn Albrecht & Dianne E. Campbell & Julian Crane & Ashlee Cunsolo & John W. Holloway & Anita L. Kozyrskyj & Christopher A. Lowry & John Penders & Nicole Redvers &, 2018. "The Canmore Declaration: Statement of Principles for Planetary Health," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-18, July.
    16. Gail Pacheco & Barrett Owen, 2015. "Moving through the political participation hierarchy: a focus on personal values," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 222-238, January.
    17. Sara Wallace Goodman, 2022. "“Good Citizens†in Democratic Hard Times," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 699(1), pages 68-78, January.
    18. Hei Gao & Zike Xu & Yu Chen & Yutian Lu & Jian Lin, 2022. "Walking Environment and Obesity: A Gender-Specific Association Study in Shanghai," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, February.
    19. Saikat Banerjee & Bibek Ray Chaudhuri, 2022. "Brand love and party preference of young political consumers (voters)," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 19(3), pages 475-503, September.
    20. Kosta Bovan & Matej Mikašinović-Komšo, 2024. "Beyond the board: a thematic analysis of political actions from 4chan’s /pol/ board," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.

    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:gam:jsoctx:v:8:y:2018:i:1:p:17-:d:135347. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.