Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T12:53:50.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Child Perception and Motivation in Political Socialization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2020

Peter K. Hatemi Open the ORCID record for Peter K. Hatemi [Opens in a new window]  and
Christopher Ojeda Open the ORCID record for Christopher Ojeda [Opens in a new window]
Peter K. Hatemi*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Christopher Ojeda
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: phatemi@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Most of what is known regarding political socialization treats parent–child concordance as evidence of transmission. This direct-transmission approach remains agnostic regarding how socialization occurs, whether traits have a role in a child's ability to identify and understand their parent's values or their motivation to adopt their parents’ values. This article advances a perception-adoption approach to unpack these microprocesses of socialization. The authors test their model using three independent studies in the United States that together comprise 4,852 parent–child dyads. They find that the transmission of partisan orientations from parent to child occurs less than half the time, which is qualitatively different from the generally held view. More importantly, the findings provide a greater understanding of how key predictors facilitate the political socialization process. Specifically, politicization improves child perception, but has no role in the child's motivation to adopt parental values. Closeness and parental value strength influence children to want to be like their parents, but do nothing to improve children's ability to recognize their parents' values. And education, previously thought to have little role in transmission, does not influence a child's ability to understand their parent's affiliation, but appears to make children more likely to reject whatever they believe it to be.

Keywords

party identificationtransmissionperceptionparent–childpolitical socialization
Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 1097 - 1118
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achen, CH (1975) Mass political attitudes and the survey response. The American Political Science Review 69(4), 1218–1231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acock, AC and Bengtson, VL (1980) Socialization and attribution processes: actual versus perceived similarity among parents and youth. Journal of Marriage and Family 42(3), 501–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alessandri, SM and Wozniak, RH (1987) The child's awareness of parental beliefs concerning the child: a developmental study. Child Development 58(2), 316–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alwin, DF and Krosnick, JA (1991) Aging, cohorts, and the stability of sociopolitical orientations over the life span. American Journal of Sociology 97(1), 169–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andolina, MW et al. (2003) Habits from home, lessons from school: influences on youth civic engagement. PS: Political Science & Politics 36(2), 275–280.Google Scholar
Barni, D et al. (2011) Value transmission in the family: do adolescents accept the values their parents want to transmit? Journal of Moral Education 40(1), 105–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, PA and Jennings, MK (1975) Parents as “middlepersons” in political socialization. The Journal of Politics 37(1), 83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, PA and Jennings, MK (1991) Family traditions, political periods, and the development of partisan orientations. The Journal of Politics 53(3), 742–763.Google Scholar
Benish-Weisman, M, Levy, S and Knafo, A (2013) Parents differentiate between their personal values and their socialization values: the role of adolescents’ values. Journal of Research on Adolescence 23(4), 614–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, A et al. (1960) The American Voter. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cashmore, JA and Goodnow, JJ (1985) Agreement between generations: a two-process approach. Child Development 56(2), 493–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delli Carpini, M and Keeter, S (1997) What Americans Know About Politics and why it Matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dinas, E (2014) Why does the apple fall far from the tree? How early political socialization prompts parent–child dissimilarity. British Journal of Political Science 44(4), 827–852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donaldson, ZR and Young, LJ (2008) Oxytocin, vasopressin, and the neurogenetics of sociality. Science 322(5903), 900–904.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dudley, RL and Gitelson, AR (2002) Political literacy, civic education, and civic engagement: a return to political socialization? Applied Developmental Science 6(4), 175–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaves, LJ, Eysenck, HJ and Martin, NG (1989) Genes, Culture, and Personality: An Empirical Approach. London; San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fazekas, Z and Littvay, L (2015) The importance of context in the genetic transmission of US party identification. Political Psychology 36(4), 361–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gimpel, JG, Lay, JC and Schuknecht, JE (2003) Cultivating Democracy: Civic Environments and Political Socialization in America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Glass, J, Bengtson, VL and Dunham, CC (1986) Attitude similarity in three-generation families: socialization, Status inheritance, or reciprocal influence? American Sociological Review 51(5), 685–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gniewosz, B et al. (2008) Adolescents’ attitudes towards foreigners: associations with perceptions of significant others' attitudes depending on sex and age. Diskurs Kindheits-und Jugendforschung 3(3), 321–337.Google Scholar
Grusec, JE (1992) Social learning theory and developmental psychology: the legacies of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura. Developmental Psychology 28(5), 776–786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grusec, JE and Goodnow, JJ (1994) Impact of parental discipline methods on the child's internalization of values: a reconceptualization of current points of view. Developmental Psychology 30(1), 4–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grusec, JE, Goodnow, JJ and Kuczynski, L (2000) New directions in analyses of parenting contributions to children's acquisition of values. Child Development 71(1), 205–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hatemi, P and Ojeda, C (2019) “Replication Data for: The Role of Child Perception and Motivation in Political Socialization”, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/2KE1XF, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:dbRahTayCNm2xiROGbbavQ== [fileUNF]Google Scholar
Hatemi, PK et al. (2009) Is there a “party” in your genes? Political Research Quarterly 62(3), 584–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Highton, B (2009) Revisiting the relationship between educational attainment and political sophistication. The Journal of Politics 71(4), 1564–1576.Google Scholar
Hooghe, M and Boonen, J (2013) The intergenerational transmission of voting intentions in a multiparty setting: an analysis of voting intentions and political discussion among 15-year-old adolescents and their parents in Belgium. Youth & Society 47(1), 125–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, R, Johnson, PE and Sprague, J (2004) Political Disagreement: The Survival of Diverse Opinions Within Communication Networks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, R and Sprague, J (1987) Networks in context: the social flow of political information. American Political Science Review 81(4), 1197–1216.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, R and Sprague, J (1991) Discussant effects on vote choice: intimacy, structure, and interdependence. The Journal of Politics 53(1), 122–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janoski, T and Wilson, J (1995) Pathways to voluntarism: family socialization and status transmission models. Social Forces 74(1), 271–292.Google Scholar
Jennings, MK and Langton, KP (1969) Mothers versus fathers: the formation of political orientations among young Americans. The Journal of Politics 31(2), 329–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, MK and Niemi, RG (1968) The transmission of political values from parent to child. The American Political Science Review 62(1), 169–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, MK and Niemi, RG (1974) The Political Character of Adolescence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jennings, MK and Niemi, RG (1981) Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, MK, Stoker, L and Bowers, J (2009) Politics across generations: family transmission reexamined. The Journal of Politics 71(3), 782–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerckhoff, AC and Huff, JL (1974) Parental influence on educational goals. Sociometry (September), 307–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klofstad, CA (2010) The lasting effect of civic talk on civic participation: evidence from a panel study. Social Forces 88(5), 2353–2375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knafo, A and Assor, A (2007) Motivation for agreement with parental values: desirable when autonomous, problematic when controlled. Motivation and Emotion 31(3), 232–245.Google Scholar
Knafo, A and Galansky, N (2008) The influence of children on their parents’ values. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 2(3), 1143–1161.Google Scholar
Knafo, A and Schwartz, SH (2003) Parenting and adolescents’ accuracy in perceiving parental values. Child Development 74(2), 595–611.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knafo, A and Schwartz, SH (2004) Identity formation and parent-child value congruence in adolescence. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 22(3), 439–458.Google Scholar
Knafo, A and Schwartz, SH (2009) Accounting for parent–child value congruence: theoretical considerations and empirical evidence. In Schönpflug, U (ed.), Cultural Transmission: Psychological, Developmental, Social, and Methodological Aspects. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 240–268.Google Scholar
Kuczynski, L, Marshall, S and Schell, K (1997) Value socialization in a bidirectional context. In Grusec, J and Kuczynski, L (eds.), Parenting and Children's Internalization of Values: A Handbook of Contemporary Theory. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 23–50.Google Scholar
Kuczynski, L and Parkin, CM (2007) Agency and bidirectionality in socialization. Interactions, transactions and relational dialectics. In Grusec, JE and Hastings, PD (eds.), Interactions, Transactions and Relational Dialectics. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 259–283.Google Scholar
Langton, KP (1969) Political Socialization. New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, MS et al. (2008) The American Voter Revisited. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcdevitt, M and Chaffee, S (2002) From top-down to trickle-up influence: revisiting assumptions about the family in political socialization. Political Communication 19(3), 281–301.Google Scholar
Mendelberg, T, Mccabe, KT and Thal, A (2017) College socialization and the economic views of affluent Americans. American Journal of Political Science 61(3), 606–623.Google Scholar
Miklikowska, M (2016) Like parent, like child? Development of prejudice and tolerance towards immigrants. British Journal of Psychology 107(1), 95–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Niemi, RG (1974) How Family Members Perceive Each Other. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Niemi, RG, Hedges, R and Jennings, MK (1977) The similarity of husbands’ and wives’ political views. American Politics Research 5(2), 133–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, RG and Jennings, MK (1991) Issues and inheritance in the formation of party identification. American Journal of Political Science 35(4), 970–988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, RG, Ross, RD and Alexander, J (1978) The similarity of political values of parents and college-age youths. Public Opinion Quarterly 42(4), 503–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ojeda, C and Hatemi, PK (2015) Accounting for the child in the transmission of party identification. American Sociological Review 80(6), 1150–1174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okagaki, L and Bevis, C (1999) Transmission of religious values: relations between parents’ and daughters’ beliefs. The Journal of Genetic Psychology 160(3), 303–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parsons, T (1955) Family structure and the socialization of the child. In Parsons, T and Bales, RF (eds.), Family Socialization and Interaction Process. New York: Free Press, pp. 35–131.Google Scholar
Perez-Brena, NJ, Updegraff, KA and Umaña-Taylor, AJ (2015) Transmission of cultural values among Mexican-origin parents and their adolescent and emerging adult offspring. Family Process 54(2), 232–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pratt, MW et al. (2008) Intergenerational transmission of values: family generativity and adolescents’ narratives of parent and grandparent value teaching. Journal of Personality 76(2), 171–198.Google ScholarPubMed
Prioste, A et al. (2015) Family relationships and parenting practices: a pathway to adolescents’ collectivist and individualist values? Journal of Child and Family Studies 24(11), 3258–3267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rico, G and Jennings, MK (2016) The formation of left-right identification: pathways and correlates of parental influence. Political Psychology 37(2), 237–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roest, A, Dubas, JS and Gerris, JR (2009) Value transmissions between fathers, mothers, and adolescent and emerging adult children: the role of the family climate. Journal of Family Psychology 23(2), 146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sears, DO (1983) The persistence of early political predispositions: the roles of attitude object and life stage. In Wheeler, L and Shaver, P (eds.), Review of Personality and Social Psychology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, pp. 79–116.Google Scholar
Stattin, H and Kim, Y (2018) Both parents and adolescents project their own values when perceiving each other's values. International Journal of Behavioral Development 42(1), 106–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stattin, H et al. (2015) Adolescents’ perceptions of the democratic functioning in their families. European Psychologist 16, 32–42.Google Scholar
Tedin, KL (1974) The influence of parents on the political attitudes of adolescents. The American Political Science Review 68(4), 1579–1592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Truett, KR et al. (1994) A model system for analysis of family resemblance in extended kinships of twins. Behavior Genetics 24(1), 35–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, NA and Sears, DO (1998) Event-driven political communication and the preadult socialization of partisanship. Political Behavior 20(2), 127–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, S, Schlozman, K and Brady, H (1995) Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westholm, A (1999) The perceptual pathway: tracing the mechanisms of political value transfer across generations. Political Psychology 20(3), 525–551.Google Scholar
Westholm, A and Niemi, RG (1992) Political institutions and political socialization: a cross-national study. Comparative Politics 25(1), 25–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitbeck, LB and Gecas, V (1988) Value attributions and value transmission between parents and children. Journal of Marriage and Family 50(3), 829–840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, FA and Matawie, KM (2004) Parental morality and family processes as predictors of adolescent morality. Journal of Child and Family Studies 13(2), 219–233.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Hatemi and Ojeda Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/2KE1XF
Link
Supplementary material: File

Hatemi and Ojeda supplementary material

Hatemi and Ojeda supplementary material

Download Hatemi and Ojeda supplementary material(File)
File 14 MB