The impact of socio-economic status on political participation

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between political participation on the one hand and parental/adolescent socio-economic status on the other hand. We analyzed this research question using the Belgian Political Panel Survey 2006-2008, a representative panel study among 4,235 young Belgian adolescents (aged 16 at time-point 1). The structural equation model reveals that young people's socio-economic status has more influence on political participation than the parental socio-economic status. Adolescents' socio-economic status does not only affect the level of political participation at the time of measurement itself, but also two years later. This indicates that higher educated or in higher tracks, people are not only more likely to participate, but also more likely to participate in the future: the gap between the activists and non-activists even grows over time.