ABSTRACT
For many years, scholarship on political socialization endorsed the assumption that adolescents' political preferences were "inherited" from parents. Socialization research has long emphasized the role that parents play in predicting children's political orientations. Civic education increased the odds that children moved away from initial agreement with parents in evaluating both John McCain and Barack Obama. The availability of political information via a wide range of social media networks, coupled with the increased clarity of the parties' ideological positions, allows youth to more readily select a party that matches their personal priorities. Moreover, digital media allows youth greater choice over their media consumption and reinforce the role of peers in developing norms of citizenship and partisanship. Early perspectives on youth civic education were dominated by studies establishing parents as the principal source of political socialization, in terms of both partisanship and political attitudes. The political environment itself may be contributing to new pathways of socialization.
