Family Beats School? Adolescents' Turnout Intention on Different Educational Tracks

Abstract

Studies on political socialisation reveal that children and adolescents develop attitudes towards political processes long before they can actively participate in politics. This study, using panel data on Finnish adolescents (n = 1331), investigates how adolescents' turnout intention evolves as they approach the official voting age, particularly examining the influence of different educational trajectories on turnout intention among those from politically engaged and unengaged family contexts. Schools play a vital role in political learning, especially for young people without political discussions at home. While family remains the primary agent of socio-political learning, schools offer opportunities to bridge inequalities in political engagement arising from family background and social class. In Finland, education diverges into general and vocational tracks after age 15–16, with significant differences in civic education emphasis. Our results show, perhaps unsurprisingly, that adolescents living with parents who vote more frequently and engage in frequent discussions at home exhibit higher turnout intention. However, while the turnout intention trajectories do not vary based on educational track, we observe that the trajectories converge among general track students, thus mitigating participation gaps according to family background.