Surveying support for child and youth political participation in Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Recent decades have witnessed increased empirical and policy interest in children’s citizenship, particularly since the ratification of the United Nations Declaration of Children’s Rights. However, support for children’s active citizenship is often hindered by the pervasiveness of discourses that characterise children as innocent, developing, and free from responsibility. Public and governmental decision-making largely excludes children’s consultation and contributions, often determined by age alone. To quantifiably assess the amount of public support for children’s political participation, we commissioned a Likert scale survey question on degrees of support for children and youth (across four age groups between 3 and 18 year olds) having the opportunity to influence government decisions, in the Australian and New Zealand 2016 versions of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Analysis of responses to this question in relation to demographic survey data indicate variation in preferences for different age groups, and that age, gender, and political party preference of respondents were variables of significance for both nations. These variables point to potential predictors of attitudes toward political participation of children and youth which have relevance for policymakers and educators in relation to provision of programmes that will increase the engagement of children and youth in government decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• survey research
• cross-national research
• International Social Survey Programme
• political participation

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Correction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In both Australia (https://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/referendums/1999_Referendum_Reports_Statistics/Enrolments.htm) and New Zealand (https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/enrol-and-vote-in-an-election/enrol-to-vote/) it is compulsory, by law, to be registered in the electoral roll if you are over 18 years of age and a permanent resident of the country. Voting is compulsory in Australia, but not in New Zealand.

2. Assessed through scanning previous ISSP international base survey, AUSSA and ISSPNZ questionnaires for search terms ‘child’ and ‘youth’.

3. We refrain from including the socio-demographic variables in the previous models because these are sometimes highly correlated with political party preferences, and their inclusion may result in issues of multicollinearity. Results adjusting for the control variables are nevertheless available from the authors upon request.

4. ‘Redistribution of political and economic power so that all members of society have the opportunity to participate in the shaping and control of the institutions and relationships which determine their lives;’ (Australian Labor Party 2015, 4).

5. However, it must be borne in mind the models for political party differences were intently unadjusted.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spencer Foundation [201400172] and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course [CE140100027].

Notes on contributors

Louise Gwenneth Phillips

Dr Louise Gwenneth Phillips is an academic in arts and early years education in The School of Education at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her sociological and arts-based research focuses on education’s responsibilities to children’s rights and citizenship, with key recent co-authored work in this area being the Routledge book Young Children’s Community Building in Action: Embodied, Emplaced and Relational Citizenship.

Jenny Ritchie

Dr Jenny Ritchie is an Associate Professor in Te Whānau o Ako Pai, the School of Education, at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research and teaching focuses on social, cultural and ecological justice in education.

Francisco Perales

Dr. Francisco Perales is Senior Research Fellow & ARC DECRA Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research (The University of Queensland). His recent research focuses on understanding socio-economic inequalities by gender and sexual orientation using longitudinal and life-course approaches. His work has been published in outlets such asChild Development, Social Forces, Journal of Marriage & Family and Social Science & Medicine.