The Intergenerational Transmission of Party Preferences in Multiparty Contexts: Examining Parental Socialization Processes in the Netherlands"

Research shows that parents have a strong influence on the party preferences of their children. Yet little is known about how such preferences are transmitted in multiparty systems with weak party identification and high electoral volatility. We propose a model of intergenerational transmission that includes both direct effects of parents' party preferences on those of their children, as well as indirect effects through left–right and issue positions. We test this model with original survey data of Dutch adolescents (14–20 years old) and their parents (N = 751 adolescent-parent pairs). We find two paths through which parents exert influence on the party preferences of their adolescent children. On the first path, parental party preferences function as a direct predictor of adolescent party preferences. On the second path, adolescent left–right and issue positions function as a mediator between parental left–right and issue positions and adolescent party preferences, with the effect of left–right positions being stronger than that of issue positions. The frequency with which adolescents discuss political topics with their parents moderates these effects

Puzzling parents?:The perception and adoption of parental political orientations in the Dutch multiparty setting

Recent studies investigating the role of children in parental socialization propose a model where children first perceive the political orientations of their parents (correctly or incorrectly) before deciding whether to adopt those perceived orientations. The current paper extends this model tested in two-party contexts to the intergenerational transmission of party preferences and left-right orientations in the Dutch multiparty context. It demonstrates that parental left-right orientations are more difficult for adolescents to correctly perceive than parental party preferences, but that both perceived parental party preferences and left-right orientations are adopted at similar rates. Discussing politics with their parents increases adolescents' likelihood of correctly perceiving parental party preferences and left-right orientations. However, parental political engagement, and adolescent political engagement, knowledge, and educational level only increase adolescents' likelihood of correctly perceiving parental left-right orientations. Lastly, the more importance adolescents place on their parents’ opinions, the likelier they are to adopt their political orientations.</p