Using a longitudinal design, we asked 2 age cohorts of adolescents (15- and 18-year-olds) whether they, during the last year, had experienced events that had increased their civic interest and about details of their experiences. Based on self-determination theory, we predicted that the adolescents who reported having experienced events of this…

Adolescent voluntary associations are particularly well positioned in the life course to encourage voting as youth become full citizens. Extracurriculars socialize students into voting by habituating them to civic engagement and by connecting them to politically engaged cultures. We establish this argument by testing the effects of high school…

Examines three theories of the impact of early learning on the development of political activism among young Americans. Provides a typology of political activity and investigates the influence of political and social psychological variables. Concludes that early learning contributes markedly to the development of political activism. (TRS)

A social cognition approach is taken to study social class influences on schooling as reflected in the attitudes of 74 high school students. What happens in school is discussed from the perspectives of dominant and subordinate social classes. Narratives of the adolescents in this study confirm a number of propositions of critical theory pertaining…

Reviews the findings from previous studies of adolescent political tolerance, reconceptualizing the traditional view of political tolerance as the willingness to extend human rights to everyone. Presents the results of a recent study, reporting statistically significant differences of tolerance in terms of gender, political experiences, cognitive…