The political socialization determinants of higher order sociopolitical space: A swedish example

Swedish students (N = 783) were used to study the number and nature of those higher order sociopolitical dimensions that could be conceived of as resulting from a complex matrix of socialization experiences, including gender effects, parental political ideology, parental education, child-rearing practices, daycare experience, emotional atmosphere in the home, democratic decision making in the home, and certain interactions among these background socialization experiences. The main results indicated that (a) the sociopolitical attitudes of adolescents seemed firmly embedded within the matrix of these socialization experiences and seemed to result in three stable, higher order dimensions of sociopolitical attitudes that were labeled political-economic conservatism, xenophobia, and punitiveness and (b) no significant relationship was found between the higher order dimensions of xenophobia and punitiveness and the nature of the emotional interaction between parents and children.