The Effects of Race and *Class on Patterns of Political Participation Among African-American Young Adults

Spiller, Marwin Jerome

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/86207 Copy

Description

Title

The Effects of Race and *Class on Patterns of Political Participation Among African-American Young Adults

Author(s)

Spiller, Marwin Jerome

Issue Date

2004

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

James Kluegel

Department of Study

Sociology

Discipline

Sociology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Political Science, General

Language

eng

Abstract

Comparisons between white and African-American young adults show that while involvement in politics declined for both groups since 1960, the drop was more dramatic for African-American young people. Explanations for this decline, however, were not consistent with my hypotheses. More specifically, results in this study challenge initial claims asserting the political importance of racial affinity in the protest era. They show that despite raising levels of social and economic status among African-American young adults in the hip-hop era the effect of social class on political involvement declined. Collectively, these findings suggest that a full understanding of change or the lack thereof in political participation among African-American young adults over the past 30 to 40 years needs to take into account changes in their objective circumstances, changes in their levels of psychological engagement, and changes in how each of these factors affect political involvement.

Graduation Semester

2004

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/86207

Owning Collections