Funded Research
Economic Hardship, Family Life and Voter Turnout in Developmental Perspective: Longitudinal Research on High School Class of 1992
Source: Russell Sage Foundation
Active: 03/01/04 - 3/31/06
Investigator(s):
Eric Plutzer
Concern about low voter turnout is ubiquitous. Philanthropic foundations, government officials, scholars, non-profit organizations, journalists and even the entertainment industry have directed resources towards increasing the political engagement of America's youth. I argue that the concern underlying most of these efforts is overly broad overlooking important differences among youth. In particular, I wish to thoroughly explore the impact of economic hardship, family structure and race in fostering or inhibiting civic development among the nation's youngest eligible voters. This project examines over 12,000 citizens who were 8th graders in 1988 and explores how their family and economic status as teenagers contributes to their development as voters or abstainers during their first four national elections. I view turnout in developmental perspective and seek to identify youth most likely to develop into habitual voters and those most likely to settle into long-term patterns of abstention. My primary focus concerns how family structure especially being raised by a single parent interacts with economic hardship to create long term disparities in political participation. Further, I place individual development in the context of racial, school, and neighborhood contexts. The result will be a richer understanding of the complex processes that characterize the crucial early years when young people develop into regular participants or habitual abstainers. More practically, the research will help civic organizations interested in low turnout direct their scarce resources to youth who are at greatest risk of having no voice in electoral politics. The project fits squarely within the Foundation's program in the Social Dimensions of Inequality, wedding concerns raised by those interested in the family (e.g., Ellwood & Jencks 2001) and those interested in economics and political participation (Verba et al. 2003).
