Blake Dean

Sociology 1101
Final Research Exercise Report, Steps 1-9
1. Topic Title:
Influence parents political beliefs have on their childrens political beliefs
2. Definition of the Problem:
Political socialization is the way in which one forms their political opinions. The shaping
of political opinions can be informed and influenced by many factors, one of which being
parents. I have seen in my own life how my parents have influenced my political
viewpoint but also how my opinions differ from their opinions, so I am interested to see
the results of this experiment. I am interested to know if the age of the child affects the
amount of influence the parent holds in political socialization. I am also interested to
know on which issues parents and children most often disagree and which seem to be
common ground. I am also interested to see whether talking about politics in the home
causes children to be more found in their parents views or differ more highly. To
research this I will be interviewing 3-5 parent and children pairs. I will use both
teenagers with their parents and adults with their parents to see if age affects the
amount of influence. The questions asked will attempt to define the closeness of each
parent-child pair and their stance on current political issues. I will be researching within
my local Ringgold area.
3. Literature Review:
According to the textbook, Introduction to Sociology, family is the first agent of
socialization. Socialization is the process wherein people come to understand norms
and expectations. However there are many important factors in how a family raises
their child and in turn assists in their childs socialization. Factors such as race, social
class and race play a role in how a child is raised and socialized. Introduction to
Sociology gives the example that poor families usually emphasize obediencewhile
wealthy families emphasize judgment and creativity. Children are also socialized to
follow norms assigned to their gender, to fall in conformity within their class and of how
they perceive other races. All of these things greatly affect a childs view of himself, his
world and other people. In a later chapter, the textbook defines and discusses politics.
Politics is defined as a means of studying a groups underlying social norms and
values. Studying someones political practices and beliefs can reveal their own
personal philosophies and values (Open Stax College, 2013: Pages 106, 390).
In McDevitt and Chaffees article, From Top-Down to Trickle-Up Influences: Revisiting
Assumptions About the Family in Political Socialization, they claim that adolescents are
not merely receptive to civic development; they possess the power to transform patterns
of family communication in ways that benefit themselves and their parents. The
writers disband the ideas that children develop ideas based on modeling, that parents

influence the children but children cannot influence parents and that adults are unlikely
to change in their political views. They claim that children are quite active in their own
civic development and that children can influence parents views just as much as
parents can influence their children. In this article, two different forms of parent-child
communication is discussed, socio-oriented and concept-oriented. A socio-oriented
style of communication discourages discussing any topics that might cause turmoil or
offend those above you. A concept-oriented style of communication encourages
children to speak with freedom and form their own opinions. It is more common in
concept oriented households that children read the news, collect valuable knowledge
and create their own views (McDevitt, Chaffee, 2002: Pages 281-287)
In the article, Why Does the Apple Fall Far from the Tree? How Early Political
Socialization Prompts Parent-Child Dissimilarity, Dinas claims, children develop their
partisan identity as they learn about politics from their parents. It is rare that children
identify with the rival party of their parents party. When children grow older the political
influence that their parents held earlier seems to decrease. A change from a parents
view would be caused by new information and new influences in early adulthood. It is
also shown in this article that in highly politicized homes, children are more likely to hold
views in contrast to their parents. This change is because by discussing relevant
political issues in the home, the children pay more attention to the messages sent by
politics at their time. New social contexts, new political events, and issues may
challenge parents partisan legacy (Dinas, 2013: Pages 827-829, 848).

4. Hypotheses:
On the basis of the literature I reviewed, I have formulated the following hypotheses:
First, I hypothesize that most children will agree significantly with their parents political
views
Second, I hypothesize that agreement between children and parents on political views
is due to how often politics is discussed within the home.
Third, I hypothesize that disagreement between children and their parents on political
views result in the child being actively involved politically.
5. Research Method:
To research this topic, Im going to conduct five interviews with 5 pairs of a parent and a
child who have agreed to participate. Im going to collect basic demographic information
from the people I interview, including their age, sex, race, education, occupation, and
marital status.

Here are the questions I am going to ask them about, which will help me investigate my
hypotheses.
1. Are you active politically? (
2. Would you say that your political views line up with those views of your parents?
3. In your home, was/is politics often discussed?
4. Do you identify as politically conservative, liberal or moderate? Why?
5. Are you in favor of raising the minimum wage? Explain your stance.
6. Do you support the legalization of homosexual marriage? Why or Why Not?
7. Do you support the legalization of marijuana? Explain your stance.
8. Should the United States accept Syrian refugees? Why or Why Not?
9. Should the United States government increase regulations to prevent global
warming? Explain your stance.
10. Should immigrants to the United States be required to learn English? Why or Why
Not?
6. Data
To test my hypotheses, I used interviews in collecting data about the topic. Here are the
results which I have found:
1. Interview #1 was a 42-year-old white mother with an undergrad degree and her
17-year-old son who is a senior in high school. The mother said that she
believed that her and her son held similar political views, while her son believed
they would not. Both mother and son said that politics was often discussed in the
household. When asked how she identified politically, the mother said she was
conservative. When asked how he identified politically, the son said he was
moderate. When both mother and son were asked about their stance on raising
the minimum wage, the mother was starkly opposed for economic reasons and
the son was in favor for those who need more money to live. When both were
asked where they stood on the legalization of homosexual marriage, both the
mother and the son were opposed for religious reasons. When asked about their
stance on the legalization of marijuana, the mother was opposed and the son
was in support of marijuana only used for medical purposes. When asked if the
US should accept Syrian refugees, the mother was against and the son was
undecided. When asked if the US government should increase regulations to
prevent global warming, both mother and son were in favor. When asked if all
immigrants to the US should be required to learn English, the mother said yes
and the son said no. When asked if they were politically active, the mother said
yes and the son said no.

2. Interview #2 was a 64-year-old white father with a Bachelors degree and his 28year-old daughter who only has a high school education. The father said that he
believed that he and his daughter did hold similar political views, and his

daughter agreed. Both father and daughter said that politics was rarely discussed
in the household. When asked how he identified politically, the father said he
was liberal. When asked how she identified politically, the daughter said she was
liberal. When both father and daughter were asked about their stance on raising
the minimum wage, both were for the idea on the basis of better living quality for
those earning the minimum wage. When both were asked where they stood on
the legalization of homosexual marriage, the father was opposed but the
daughter was in favor. When asked about their stance on the legalization of
marijuana, both were in favor. When asked if the US should accept Syrian
refugees, both the father and daughter said they were in favor. When asked if
the US government should increase regulations to prevent global warming, both
the father and the daughter were in favor. When asked if all immigrants to the
US should be required to learn English, both the father and the daughter said no.
When asked if they were politically active, both the father and the daughter said
no.

3. Interview #3 was a 53-year-old black mother with a Bachelors degree and her
16-year-old daughter who is a junior in high school. Both the mother and
daughter believed they differed heavily in their political views. Both mother and
daughter said that politics was often discussed in the household. When asked
how she identified politically, the mother said she was conservative. When asked
how he identified politically, the daughter said she was liberal. When both
mother and son were asked about their stance on raising the minimum wage, the
mother was against but the daughter was in favor. When both were asked where
they stood on the legalization of homosexual marriage, the mother was strongly
opposed for religious reasons, but the daughter was in favor of it. When asked
about their stance on the legalization of marijuana, the mother was opposed and
the daughter was in support. When asked if the US should accept Syrian
refugees, the mother was against and the daughter was in favor of. When asked
if the US government should increase regulations to prevent global warming, the
mother was against and the daughter was strongly for it. When asked if all
immigrants to the US should be required to learn English, the mother said yes
and the daughter said no. When asked if they were politically active, both the
mother and the daughter said yes.

4. Interview #4 was a 46-year-old Hispanic mother with a Masters degree and her
19-year-old son who is a freshman in college. The mother said that she believed
that her and her son held similar political views, while her son believed they
would not. The mother said that politics was often discussed. When asked how
she identified politically, the mother said she was liberal. When asked how he
identified politically, the son said he was also liberal. When both mother and son
were asked about their stance on raising the minimum wage, both were in favor.
When both were asked where they stood on the legalization of homosexual
marriage, both the mother and the son were in favor. When asked about their

stance on the legalization of marijuana, the mother was opposed and the son
stood in support. When asked if the US should accept Syrian refugees, both the
mother and son were in favor. When asked if the US government should
increase regulations to prevent global warming, both mother and son were in
support. When asked if all immigrants to the US should be required to learn
English, the mother said no and the son was in favor. When asked if they were
politically active, the mother said no and the son said yes.

5. Interview #5 was a 49-year-old white father with a Bachelors degree and his 18year-old son who is a senior in high school. The father said that he believed that
he and his son did hold similar political views, and his son disagreed. Both father
and son said that politics was often discussed in the household. When asked
how he identified politically, the father said he was conservative. When asked
how she identified politically, the son said he was liberal. When both father and
son were asked about their stance on raising the minimum wage, the father was
opposed, the son was in favor. When both were asked where they stood on the
legalization of homosexual marriage, the father was opposed but the son was in
support. When asked about their stance on the legalization of marijuana, both
were against. When asked if the US should accept Syrian refugees, both the
father and son said they were against. When asked if the US government should
increase regulations to prevent global warming, the father was against for
economic reasons, the son was in support. When asked if all immigrants to the
US should be required to learn English, the father said yes, the son said no.
When asked if they were politically active, both the father and the son said yes.

7. Data analysis and discussion

A) Comparison of findings with the Literature Review:

According to the research, my findings mostly support the material found during my
Literature Review. How politicized a household is and how often politics is discussed
has a high correlation with childrens political views differing from their parents. Dinas
claimed this in his study that highly politicized homes are more likely to have children
with differing political views (Dinas, 2013: Pages 827-829, 848). This finding is in
accordance with my data, where in the majority of parent-child pairings that disagreed
consistently, it was also that politics was often discussed in their household. There was
one parent-child pairing that did not fit this mold. Overall, I believe my results were in
agreement with the Literature Review findings.
B) Comparison of findings with hypotheses:

First, I hypothesized that most children will agree significantly with their parents political
views. 60% of the participants disagreed with their parents on 4 or more of the 6 issues
provided, only 40% agreed with more than 4 and within the 40%, no one agreed fully
with their parents.

Children's Agreement with Parents on Political Issues

40%
60%

Disagreed on majority of issues provided

Agreed on majority of issues provided

Agreed on all issues provided

Second, I hypothesized that agreement between children and parents on political views
is due to how often politics is discussed within the home, children are more likely to
disagree with parents if politics is often discussed. 60% of parent-child pairings that
said they discussed politics within the home resulted in disagreeing on political issues.
20% that didnt discuss political issues resulted in agreeing. 20% that did discuss
political issues ended up agreeing.

Discussion of Politics Leading to Agreement/Disagreement

20%

20%

60%

Discussing Politics Led to Disagreement

Not Discussing Politics Led to Agreement

Discussing Politics Led to Agreement

Third, I hypothesized that disagreement between children and their parents on political
views result in the child being actively involved politically.

Agreement/Disagreement with Parents Leading to Political Involvment

20%

20%

20%
40%

Disagreed with Parent, NOT Politically Active

Agreed with Parent, NOT Politically Active
Disagreed with Parent, Politically Active
Agreed with Parent, Politically Active

C) Theoretical Explanation

This research shows how the political socialization of children, by their parents, is
heavily dependent on how they are socialized. To most efficiently socialize a child to
agree with the political views of their parents, it has been found that discussing politics
in the household should be avoided. Socialization within the family to agree with the
parents beliefs is the function of the parents is how the parents train their children in the
image of society and to understand cultural norms and values. The parents are seen as
the location for primary socialization or the first agent of socialization. However, parents
do not socialize children alone so that could account for some of the discrepancies in
the data of children disagreeing with their parents without sound reason to disagree
(Open Stax College, 2013: Pages 106-107).

8. Conclusion
There are many factors within the home that play apart of socializing a child politically. I
have recently been quite interested in how political views are formed and more
specifically what parts of the home affect this. It was interesting to get to interview
these five parent-child pairings and see the patterns in the agreement or disagreement.
Knowing that the parents are not the sole socializer, but being able to isolate the
parents influence was an intriguing experiment. By studying this I am able to see within
my own self and my own home what I have reacted into believing and what I echo my
parents on and why.

9. References
Dinas, Elias. 2013. Why Does the Apple Fall Far from the Tree? How Early Political
Socialization Prompts Parent-Child Dissimilarity. British Journal of Political Science.
McDevitt, Michael; Chaffee, Steven. 2002. From Top-Down to Trickle-Up Influences:
Revisiting Assumptions About the Family in Political Socialization. Routledge.
Open Stax College. 2013. Introduction to Sociology. Rice University.