Although previous research has suggested the existence of a positive association between the political activities of parents and children, little is known about other forms of civic engagement. In particular, the literature lacks an international comparative study on the intergenerational transmission of civic involvement. Using Bayesian multilevel models on data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2006 special module on social participation, this article tests hypotheses on the patterns of civic engagement of parents and children in 18 European countries with different political legacies. Our results show a positive association between the participation in associational activities of parents and children in all the considered countries, above and beyond individual and contextual characteristics. In particular, we do not find an evident East–West gap in the socialization process, suggesting that the Communist past of Eastern and Central European countries has little influence on what can be considered a basic mechanism of civic learning.
AndolinaM. W.JenkinsK.ZukinC.KeeterS. (2003). Habits from home, lessons from school: Influences on youth civic engagement. PS: Political Science & Politics, 36, 275-280.
2.
BakkerT. P.de VreeseC. H. (2011). Good news for the future? Young people, internet use, and political participation. Communication Research, 38, 451-470.
3.
BeckP. A.JenningsM. K. (1979). Political periods and political participation. American Political Science Review, 73, 737-750.
4.
BeckP. A.JenningsM. K. (1982). Pathways to participation. American Political Science Review, 76, 94-108.
5.
CaputoR. K. (2009). Religious capital and intergenerational transmission of volunteering as correlates of civic engagement. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 38, 983-1002.
6.
CicognaniE.ZaniB.FournierB.GavrayC.BornM. (2012). Gender differences in youths’ political engagement and participation. The role of parents and of adolescents’ social and civic participation. Journal of Adolescence, 35, 561-576.
7.
CofféH.Van der LippeT. (2010). Citizenship norms in Eastern Europe. Social Indicators Research, 96, 479-496.
8.
CorbettaP.TuortoD.CavazzaN. (2012). Genitori e figli 35 anni dopo: La politica non abita più qui [Parents and children 35 years later: Politics does not live here anymore]. Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 42, 3-28.
9.
DeaconB. (2000). Eastern European welfare states: The impact of the politics of globalization. Journal of European Social Policy, 10, 146-161.
10.
Dotti SaniG. M.QuarantaM. (2015). Chips off the old blocks? The political participation patterns of parents and children in Italy. Social Science Research, 50, 264-276.
11.
Eurostat. (2010). EU-SILC module 2006 on social participation. Luxembourg: Author.
12.
FerreraM. (1996). The “Southern model” of welfare in social Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 6, 17-37.
13.
FlanaganC.MartìnezM. L.CumsilleP. (2010). Civil societies as cultural and developmental contexts for civic identity formation. In Arnet JensenL. (Ed.), Bridging cultural and developmental approaches to psychology: New syntheses in theory, research and policy (pp. 116-137). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
14.
FlanaganC. A.BowesJ. M.JonssonB.SheblanovaE. (1998). Ties that bind: Correlates of adolescents’ civic commitments in seven countries. Journal of Social Issues, 54, 457–475.
15.
FletcherA. C.ElderG. H. J.MekosD. (2000). Parental influences on adolescent involvement in community activities. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 10, 29-48.
16.
GelmanA.HillJ. (2006). Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
17.
GentileD. A.WalshD. A. (2002). A normative study of family media habits. Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 157-178.
18.
GesthuizenM.ScheepersP. (2012). Educational differences in volunteering in cross-national perspective: Individual and contextual explanations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41, 58-81.
19.
GrusecJ. E.DavidovM. (2007). Socialization in the family: The roles of parents. In GrusecJ. E.HastingsP. D. (Eds.), Handbook of socialization (pp. 284-308). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
20.
HessR. D.TorneyJ. V. (1969). Development of political attitudes. Chicago, IL: Aldine Press.
21.
HowardM. M. (2003). The weakness of civil society in post-communist Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
22.
JackmanS. (2009). Bayesian analysis for the social sciences. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
23.
JanoskiT.WilsonJ. (1995). Pathways to voluntarism: Family socialization and status transmission models. Social Forces, 74, 271-292.
24.
JenningsM. K. (1984). The intergenerational transfer of political ideologies in eight Western nations. European Journal of Political Research, 12, 261-276.
25.
JenningsM. K. (2002). Generation units and the student protest movement in the United States: An intra- and intergenerational analysis. Political Psychology, 23, 303-324.
26.
JenningsM. K.NiemiR. G. (1968). The transmission of political values from parent to child. American Political Science Review, 62, 169-184.
27.
JenningsM. K.StokerL.BowersJ. (2009). Politics across generations: Family transmission reexamined. Journal of Politics, 71, 782-799.
28.
KrohM.SelbP. (2009). Inheritance and the dynamics of party identification. Political Behavior, 31, 559-574.
29.
LeeT.JohnsonE.PrakashA. (2012). Media independence and trust in NGOs: The case of postcommunist countries. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41, 8-35.
30.
LetkiN. (2004). Socialization for participation? Trust, membership, and democratization in east-central Europe. Political Research Quarterly, 54, 665-679.
31.
MatthewsT. L.HempelL. M.HowellF. M. (2010). Gender and the transmission of civic engagement: Assessing the influences on youth civic activity. Sociological Inquiry, 80, 448-474.
32.
MatthewsT. L.HowellF. M. (2006). Promoting civic culture: The transmission of civic involvement from parent to child. Sociological Focus, 39, 19-35.
33.
McFarlandD. A.ThomasR. J. (2006). Bowling young: How youth voluntary associations influence adult political participation. American Sociological Review, 71, 401-425.
34.
MirazchiyskiP.CaroD. H.Sandoval-HernandezA. (2014). Youth future civic participation in Europe: Differences between the East and the rest. Social Indicators Research, 115, 1031-1055.
35.
MishlerW.RoseR. (2007). Generation, age, and time: The dynamics of political learning during Russia’s transformation. American Journal of Political Science, 51, 822-834.
36.
MoellerJ.de VreeseC. (2013). The differential role of the media as an agent of political socialization in Europe. European Journal of Communication, 28, 309-325.
37.
NesbitR. (2013). The influence of family and household members on individual volunteer choices. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41, 1134-1154.
38.
NiemiR. G.HepburnM. A. (1995). The rebirth of political socialization. Perspectives on Political Science, 24, 7-16.
39.
NiemiR. G.HepburnM. A.ChapmanC. (2000). Community service by high school students: A cure for civic ills?Political Behavior, 22, 45-69.
40.
NieuwbeertaP.WittenbroodK. (1995). Intergenerational transmission of political party preferences in the Netherlands. Social Science Research, 24, 243-261.
41.
PaikA.Navarre-JacksonL. (2011). Social networks, recruitment, and volunteering: Are social capital effects conditional on recruitment?Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40, 476-496.
42.
PercheronA.JenningsM. K. (1981). Political continuities in French families: A new perspective on an old controversy. Comparative Politics, 13, 421-436.
43.
PerksT.HaanM. (2011). Youth religious involvement and adult community participation: Do levels of youth religious involvement matter?Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40, 107-129.
44.
Pop-ElechesG.TuckerJ. A. (2013). Associated with the past? Communist legacies and civic participation in post-communist countries. East European Politics and Societies, 27, 45-68.
45.
PutnamR. (2000). Bowling alone. The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
46.
QuarantaM.Dotti SaniG. M. (2015). O tutti o nessuno? Differenze regionali e di genere nella partecipazione politica e sociale intrafamigliare in Italia [It runs in the family. Regional and gender differences in political and social participation in Italian households]. Polis—Ricerche e studi su società e politica in Italia, 29, 59-92.
47.
RotoloT.WilsonJ. (2012). State-level differences in volunteerism in the United States: Research based on demographic, institutional, and cultural macrolevel theories. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41, 452-473.
48.
SapiroV. (2004). Not your parents’ political socialization: Introduction for a new generation. Annual Review of Political Science, 7, 1-23.
49.
SchwartzS. H.BardiA. (1997). Influences of adaptation to communist rule on value priorities in Eastern Europe. Political Psychology, 18, 385-410.
50.
SettleJ. E.BondR.LevittJ. (2011). The social origins of adult political behavior. American Politics Research, 39, 239-263.
51.
SmithD. H.BaldwinB. R. (1974). Parental influence, socioeconomic status, and voluntary organization participation. Journal of Voluntary Action Research, 3, 59-66.
52.
StegmuellerD. (2013). How many countries do you need for multilevel modeling? A comparison of frequentist and Bayesian approaches. American Journal of Political Science, 57, 748-761.
53.
TedinK. L. (1976). On the reliability of reported political attitudes. American Journal of Political Science, 20, 117-124.
54.
TedinK. L. (1980). Assessing peer and parent influence on adolescent political attitudes. American Journal of Political Science, 24, 136-154.
55.
Torney-PurtaJ. V. (2002). The school’s role in developing civic engagement: A study of adolescents in twenty-eight countries. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 203-212.
56.
Van der MeerT. W. G.Van IngenE. J. (2009). Schools of democracy? Disentangling the relationship between civic participation and political action in 17 European democracies. European Journal of Political Research, 48, 281-308.
57.
Van IngenE. J.Van der MeerT. W. G. (2011). Welfare state expenditure and inequalities in voluntary association participation. Journal of European Social Policy, 21, 302-322.
58.
VerbaS.SchlozmanK. L.BradyH. E. (1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
59.
WestholmA. (1999). The perceptual pathway: Tracing the mechanisms of political value transfer across generations. Political Psychology, 20, 525-551.
60.
WestholmA.NiemiR. G. (1992). Political institutions and political socialization: A cross-national study. Comparative Politics, 25, 25-41.
61.
WilsonJ. (2012). Volunteerism research: A review essay. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41, 176-212.
62.
WolakJ. (2009). Explaining change in party identification in adolescence. Electoral Studies, 28, 573-583.
63.
ZuckermanA. S. (Ed.) (2005). The social logic of politics. Personal networks as contexts for political behavior. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
64.
ZuckermanA. S.FitzgeraldJ.DasovicJ. (2007). Partisan families: The social logic of partisanship in Germany and Britain. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
65.
ZukinC.KeeterS.AndolinaM.JenkinsK.Delli CarpiniM. X. (2006). A new engagement? Political participation, civic life, and the changing American citizen. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
