Role of Socioeconomic Status and Political Participation in Construction of Apathy Among Youth

Abstract

Youth are considered an important segment of a country’s population. This article explores the effect of socioeconomic status on apathy among youth. It also tries to determine the association between apathy and political participation. Data were collected from four universities through a self-structured questionnaire given to students. A field survey was used to collect 882 questionnaires. Data were entered in SPSS, and data analysis was done by using ordinal regression analysis. A medium level of apathy (75.5%) and political participation (46.0%) was prevalent among educated youth. Results revealed a significant effect of number of siblings, age, gender, education, father’s education, and mother’s education on apathy. An association was also found between apathy and political participation.

Keywords:

• Apathy
• socioeconomic status
• youth
• political participation
• social construction