Journal of Political Sciences & Public Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

Identifying the Antecedents of Political Engagement Behavior among Young Adult College Students

Maurice Y Mongkuo, Melissa L Lyon, M Beth Hogan and Gregory DeLone

Aim: This study assesses the impact of political social motivation, trust in government, political efficacy, and personal motivation on political engagement behavior among young adult college students.

Study design: Quasi-experimental One-shot Case Study Design.

Methodology: Survey data of indicators of the five latent constructs was collected from college students. Exploratory principal component factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha test were performed to identify the factorial structure of the each of the political engagement scales. Structural equation modeling analysis was performed to estimate the overall model fit indices and the magnitude of effects of political social motivation, trust in government, political efficacy, and personal motivation on political engagement behavior among the young adult college students.

Results: The analysis found that internal political efficacy had a large significant negative impact on political engagement behavior. External political efficacy had a large significant positive influence on political engagement behavior. Trust in government had a small positive insignificant effect on political engagement behavior. Political social motivation and personal motivation had no meaningful impact on political engagement behavior of the young adult college students.

Conclusion: Collectively, these findings suggest that to sustain American democracy, proponents should focus on promoting internal and external political efficacy, and to a less extent trust in government, not on political motivation of young adult college students.