ABSTRACT
The very young child's apperceptive life space obviously includes no political objects. He is without information, attitudes, expectations, or behavior toward political institutions and persons, having had no contact with them. One of the elementary aspects of the process of adopting behavior appropriate to the role of a citizen is the acquiring of information, attitudes, and other responses which make it possible for the individual to participate in the formal and informal operation of political processes. The rate of attitude development varies in the five attitude areas delineated: attachment to the nation; attachment to the government and to governmental figures; compliance; influence; and elections. The attitudes children develop before the sixth grade are typically generalized judgments of good. The child's early relationship to the country is highly positive although his conceptualization of it is vague. Children's rudimentary conception of the nation defined by geographical boundaries.
