Adolescents' Sociopolitical Attitudes: A Study of Sex and National Differences

Abstract

knowledge of politics; structure of political beliefs; generational differences in specific political beliefs; and various demographic differences in sociopolitical attitudes. This paper reports two studies- one on sex differences in sociopolitical beliefs, and the second on national differences. The first study showed numerous differences, with females being, overall, less conservative than males except on issues relating to religion and punishment. The second study showed that matched groups of South African and British school children (aged 17 years) held widely different sociopolitical beliefs on a number of issues, the former being predictably more conservative than the latter. The results are discussed in terms of the socialization of political ideas.