Predictors of Political Activism among Social Work Students

Abstract

This article identifies factors inspiring greater political participation among undergraduate social work students (N=125). When separating students into self-identified liberals and conservatives, the study uses resource, mobilizing, and framing variables to explain greater levels of activism. After several multivariate regressions, this article concludes that political activism is spurred by many motivators. For liberals and conservatives, belonging to an activist network and maintaining activist identities were crucial to different modes of activism. Moreover, the perceived legitimacy of traditional institutions predicted protest actions of liberals and conservatives, whereas notions of collective efficacy influenced only electoral activism. Finally, demographic status mattered only for conservative students, as female and African American conservatives were less likely to protest than male and Euro American conservatives.