Material deprivation in childhood and unequal political socialization: the relationship between children’s economic hardship and future voting

Abstract

Long-term socialization patterns are considered a key explanation for socio-economic inequalities in political participation. Material conditions in youth and childhood are assumed to contribute to rather stable trajectories of political apathy or involvement and lay the foundations for unequal participation from before voting age and far into adulthood. However, our understanding of when such inequalities begin to become noticeable, the importance of parental socio-economic status as opposed to personal socio-economic status, and potential long-term consequences is still limited. We address these issues using the youth questionnaire of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. We show that material deprivation in childhood is negatively related to turnout in young adults’ first election in which they are eligible to vote. This result holds when we control for an unusually exhaustive list of potential confounders, such as psychological childhood characteristics, parental–political interest and education, present material conditions, mental health, and future educational degrees. Our results, hence, suggest that—while personal socio-economic experiences in early adulthood are not irrelevant—socio-economic family background has an independent effect on political participation.