National Survey of Third Generation Members of the Youth-Parent Political Socialization Study, 1997

Résumé 0

This survey, conducted April-July 1997, is part of a series of surveys designed to assess political continuity and change across time for biologically related generations. The focus of this survey was to assess political continuity and change between the respondents that were part of the youth generation in the original youth-parent study, STUDENT-PARENT SOCIALIZATION STUDY, 1965 (ICPSR 7286), and their offspring ages 15 and older. Respondents were polled on the accessibility, responsiveness, trustworthiness, and comprehensibility of the government and politicians, the importance of free speech and assembly, and the influence of interest groups in politics. Respondents were asked to rate the degree to which politicians were liberal or conservative on a scale of 1 to 7. Information was gathered on whether respondents voted in the 1996, 1992, and 1988 presidential elections and for whom they voted, whether respondents were involved in political and/or community activism, whether they performed any volunteer work, their level of Internet access and proficiency, their ratings of labor unions, activist groups, and politicians, whether they had tried to influence the political or social views of others, and their opinions on the role of the United States in world affairs. Respondents' views were also elicited about the role of political parties in the United States, the rights of criminals, the legalization of marijuana, their standard of living compared to that of their parents, equal rights measures concerning ethnicity, sexual orientation, and sex, and whether most people can be trusted, are helpful, and are fair. Respondents were polled on their life habits and were asked to give their opinions on issues such as whether the United States should have been involved in the Vietnam War, women in the workplace, the relevancy and accuracy of the Bible, and prayer in school. Background variables include age, sex, religious orientation, level of religious participation, marital status, ethnicity, educational status and background, and employment status.