Political socialization of the youth: an examination of the family as an agency for youth citizenship in South Africa

Abstract

This study examined the role of the family in the political socialization of the youth. Two hundred and seventy-five (275) youth completed the self-administered questionnaire that was adapted from the Afrobarometer Round 4. The results show that significant positive relationships between parent-adolescent communication and family active citizenship, youth active citizenship and political attitudes of the youth exist. Family active citizenship was also significantly positively related to active citizenship. Two separate hierarchical regression analyses were conducted. Model 1 predicted active citizenship of youth with the final model accounting for 11% of the variance for youth active citizenship. In Model 2, using political attitudes as the predictor, the final model accounted for 26% of the variance of political attitudes of youth.