Psychological Antecedents of Adolescent Political Involvement: Personal Competence and Political Behavior

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between adolescent's personal competence and their political involvment. Focusing on self-esteem and locus-of-control, the study shows that both dimensions of personal competence affect affective, cognitive and participatory modes of political involvement. More importantly, the evidence indicates that political salience is a crucial mediating influence on the personal competence-political involvement linkage. Personal competence has little effect on the political orientations of those adolescents for whom politics is not salient. But when politics is salient the influence of personal competence is substantial. Adolescent's personal competence acquires political significance to the extent that politics is a salient dimension of their psychological environment. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.