Social differentiation in young people's political participation: the impact of social and educational factors on youth political engagement in Britain

Figures & data

Table 1. Coding for independent variables.

	0 (reference category)	N	1	N
Gender	Female	498	Male	527
Ethnicity	White	890	Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)	122
Educational qualifications	Not having level 2 qualifications or above	358	Having level 2 qualifications or above	636
Education status	Not in full-time education	330	In full-time education	688
Social class	Not managerial/professional	436	Managerial/professional	589

Figure 1. Characterisation of politics.

Table 2. Influences on young people's political engagement.

Dependent variable	Predictors	B	Beta	Sig.
Political interest	Constant	−0.671		0.000
	Male	0.213	0.106	0.001
	BME	0.059	0.019	0.535
	Having qualifications	0.121	0.058	0.061
	In full-time education	0.523	0.242	0.000
	Managerial/professional	0.320	0.158	0.000
Internal efficacy – confidence in personal knowledge and understanding of politics	Constant	−0.631		0.000
	Male	0.407	0.202	0.000
	BME	−0.110	−0.035	0.275
	Having qualifications	0.142	0.067	0.036
	In full-time education	0.393	0.181	0.000
	Managerial/professional	0.184	0.091	0.005
External efficacy – confidence in the political system	Constant	−0.210		0.026
	Male	0.011	0.005	0.880
	BME	−0.282	−0.092	0.010
	Having qualifications	0.081	0.039	0.278
	In full-time education	0.190	0.088	0.017
	Managerial/professional	0.119	0.059	0.103
Faith in the electoral process	Constant	−0.374		0.000
	Male	0.112	0.056	0.087
	BME	0.205	0.067	0.042
	Having qualifications	0.157	0.075	0.022
	In full-time education	0.248	0.116	0.001
	Managerial/professional	0.065	0.032	0.323
Perceptions of the value of elections	Constant	−0.378		0.000
	Male	0.065	0.032	0.322
	BME	−0.162	−0.052	0.107
	Having qualifications	0.091	0.044	0.179
	In full-time education	0.292	0.136	0.000
	Managerial/professional	0.258	0.129	0.000
Support for the principle of voting	Constant	−0.431		0.000
	Male	0.012	0.006	0.855
	BME	0.100	0.033	0.313
	Having qualifications	0.214	0.103	0.002
	In full-time education	0.275	0.127	0.000
	Managerial/professional	0.216	0.108	0.001
Effectiveness of political parties and politicians	Constant	−0.238		0.012
	Male	−0.037	−0.018	0.622
	BME	0.022	0.007	0.853
	Having qualifications	0.225	0.107	0.004
	In full-time education	0.164	0.076	0.045
	Managerial/professional	0.001	0.001	0.987
Trust in political parties and politicians	Constant	−0.140		0.137
	Male	0.110	0.055	0.139
	BME	−0.276	−0.087	0.018
	Having qualifications	0.117	0.056	0.132
	In full-time education	−0.014	−0.007	0.860
	Managerial/professional	0.105	0.052	0.162

Note: Figures in bold are statistically significant (p < 0.05).

Table

Derived variables	Original indicators	Percentage	Percentage
Political interest		Some or more interest	Not interested
	Q1a: How much interest do you generally have in what is going on in politics?	63	12
	Q2a: How interested were you in the general election that was held on 6 May last year?	64	14
Internal efficacy		Confident	Not confident
	Q5: How confident are you that you know enough about political parties when it comes to deciding how to vote at election times?	52	46
	To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?	Agree	Disagree
	Q13_6: I don't feel that I know enough about what is going on in politics	24	47
	Q18_5: It often is difficult for me to understand what is going on in government and politics	50	19
External efficacy	To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?	Agree	Disagree
	Q18_1: Young people like me have no say in what the government does	51	15
	Q18_7: There aren't enough opportunities for young people like me to influence political parties	61	7
Faith in the electoral process	Please indicate how you feel about elections here in Britain generally. Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.	Agree	Disagree
	Q15a_1: Elections help to keep politicians accountable for the promises they make	43	31
	Q15a_3: Elections give voters an opportunity to tell politicians what they think is really important	53	18
	Q15a_5: Having regular elections forces politicians to listen carefully to public opinion	50	20
Perceptions of the value of elections	Please indicate how you feel about elections here in Britain generally. Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.	Agree	Disagree
	Q15a_2: Elections allow voters to express their opinions but don't really change anything	57	15
	Q15a_4: All things considered, most elections are just a big waste of time and money	32	33
Support for the principle of voting	Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.	Agree	Disagree
	Q16_1: I (would) feel a sense of satisfaction when I vote / if I voted	52	14
	Q16_2: By voting / If I voted, I feel as if I can / could really help to change the way that Britain is governed	36	29
	Q16_3: I would be seriously neglecting my duty as a citizen if I didn't vote	45	22
	Q16_5: I would only consider I have the right to complain about the government if I voted in the General Election	55	15
Effectiveness of political parties and politicians	Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.	Agree	Disagree
	Q17a_1: Political parties are effective organisations for changing the lives of people for the better	21	31
	Q17a_4: My member of parliament tries hard to look after the interests of people in my constituency	24	17
	Q17a_7: Parties generally do a good job in finding suitable people to run for parliament	22	29
	Q18_2: Political parties do a good job of listening to young people's concerns, and then responding to them positively	12	51
Trust in political parties and politicians	Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.	Agree	Disagree
	Q17a_2: There is often a big difference between what a party promises it will do and what it actually does when it wins an election	75	3
	Q17a_3: In general, political parties are more interested in winning elections that in governing afterwards	65	9
	Q17a_5: The main political parties in Britain don't offer voters real choices in elections because their policies are pretty much all the same	40	18
	Q17a_6: Political parties do more to divide the country than unite it	47	12
	Q17a_8: In elections, political parties don't tell people about the really important problems facing the country	48	16
	Q18_3: Governments don't really care what young people like me think	54	14
	Q18_4: Those elected to parliament soon lose touch with people	62	6
	Q18_6: Parties are only interested in people's votes, not in their opinions	65	8