Alscher Pascal, Jana Costa
Center for Research on Education and School Development (IFS), TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany.
Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg, Germany.
J Youth Adolesc. 2025 Sep;54(9):2143-2154. doi: 10.1007/s10964-025-02186-9. Epub 2025 Apr 21.
Understanding the interplay between political participation and political efficacy is crucial for fostering democratic engagement. This two-wave panel study investigated the potentially reciprocal relationship between non-institutionalized political participation and internal and external political efficacy among adolescents. The study drew on a German sample of 444 students from Grade 7 and Grade 8 (wave 1: M = 12.94, SD = 0.61; 46.9% female). It examined whether and how internal and external political efficacy are related to participation and whether participation, in turn, is related to political efficacy over time. Results revealed low stability for external political efficacy and non-institutionalized participation and moderate stability for internal political efficacy between Grade 7 and Grade 8. When students' demographics were controlled for, internal political efficacy in Grade 7 was positively related to non-institutionalized participation in Grade 8, but no significant effects of participation on efficacy were observed. This study provides initial insights into the relationship between open democratic practices, like petitioning, protesting, and boycotting, and adolescents' perceptions of political efficacy. Results suggested that the transformative potential of participatory activities may depend on specific conditions. The findings highlight the need for further research to explore these dynamics longitudinally and across different forms of participation.
理解政治参与和政治效能之间的相互作用对于促进民主参与至关重要。这项两阶段的面板研究调查了青少年非制度化政治参与与内部和外部政治效能之间可能存在的相互关系。该研究选取了德国444名七年级和八年级学生作为样本（第一阶段：M = 12.94，标准差 = 0.61；46.9%为女生）。研究考察了内部和外部政治效能与参与之间是否相关以及如何相关，以及随着时间推移参与是否反过来与政治效能相关。结果显示，七年级到八年级期间，外部政治效能和非制度化参与的稳定性较低，内部政治效能的稳定性中等。在控制了学生的人口统计学特征后，七年级的内部政治效能与八年级的非制度化参与呈正相关，但未观察到参与对效能有显著影响。本研究为请愿、抗议和抵制等公开民主实践与青少年政治效能感之间的关系提供了初步见解。结果表明，参与活动的变革潜力可能取决于特定条件。研究结果凸显了进一步开展研究以纵向探索这些动态关系以及不同参与形式的必要性。
