Like Parents, Like Citizens: Mexican Children’s Political Socialization

Abstract

This paper addresses how future citizens are being socialized in Mexico, and more specifically, what is the role of family communication and viewing news in shaping civic awareness and political participation. The analyzed data comes from a survey to Mexican children enrolled in the 6^th year of elementary school in three cities of the North East of Mexico (n = 1544).  The analytical strategy consisted in developing a full structural equation model to test both the validity of the constructs proposed, and the hypothetical relationships among those constructs.  Results reinforced the central role of parents in shaping future citizens, by having an effect on children’s attitudes to political participation. Otherwise, TV news viewing was found as having an effect on children’s civic awareness, but just a weak effect on children’s attitudes to political participation.  The paper concludes with a final elaboration regarding theoretical and public policy implications from those findings; more specifically, it offers guidelines for educational interventions that take advantage from the relevance of parents on shaping Mexican future citizens. 

Keywords: Political socialization, political communication, civic development, public opinion, structural equation models.

Submission date: 2013-05-30

Acceptance date: 2013-12-08