The link between social attitudes and voting propensities: Attitude-vote consistency among adolescents in Belgium

Joris Boonen*, Cecil Meeusen, Ellen Quintelier

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Research on the political development of adolescents is mainly focused on political engagement and attitudes. The more complex relationship between attitudes and voting behavior is less studied among citizens under the legal voting age. We investigate whether there is a link between social attitudes and voting propensities among Flemish adolescents, using data from the Parent-Child Socialization Study 2012. We observe attitude-vote consistency for three Flemish parties with a clear-cut ideological profile - the Green, radical rightist and Flemish Nationalist party. Findings show that adolescents' attitude-vote consistency is reinforced by their level of political sophistication. The correspondence between social attitudes and vote choice, however, is not impressive and significantly lower than among experienced adults, leaving room for other influential factors. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)81-93
Number of pages13
JournalElectoral Studies
Volume36
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Political sophistication
  • Voting propensity
  • Adolescents
  • Social attitudes
  • Belgium
  • GENDER-DIFFERENCES
  • PARTY
  • BEHAVIOR
  • AGE
  • PREFERENCES
  • IMMIGRATION
  • IDENTITIES
  • ELECTIONS
  • PARENTS
  • WESTERN

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