Research Trends on Political Participation of School Aged Children and Adolescents: Bibliometric Mapping and Content Analysis

Children’s and adolescents’ positions in politics remain marginalized in discursive sources. However, their interest and participation in political issues has been the subject of recent debate. This study aimed to identify global trends and research gaps in research on the political participation of school aged children and adolescents published in the Scopus database. The study used bibliometric analysis and content analysis, with 394 studies using bibliometric analysis data and 29 journal articles using content analysis data. The results revealed that the field has become an important research topic in recent years and has been researched at the level of many countries, sources, and authors. Through bibliographic links, it was shown that the countries contributing the most to the field are the USA, Belgium, and the UK; the Journal of Adolescence and Political Behavior is the leading journal in the field; and Campbell (Political behavior, 30, 437-454, 2008) and Quintelier (Research Papers in Education, 25(2), 137-154, 2010) are the publications with strong linking relationships. The keyword analysis results showed that the research focus has shifted toward political engagement, citizenship education, democracy, and social media in recent years. The content analysis revealed that the majority of the studies were quantitative in approach, used large sample groups, mostly covered adolescents, conducted very little research on childhood, and focused on variables such as political interest, gender, socioeconomic status, age, family, migration history, school, peers, and media. These results can guide researchers, countries, and policymakers and reveal research trends, current status, and research gaps in the field of political participation among children and adolescents.