Articles

Politieke kennis van laatste-jaars-humanioraleerlingen

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Abstract

Our research concerns political knowledge among eighteen-year-old pupils (last year secondary school) in Belgium ( sample size : 600) and the variables that may cause a differential level of political knowledge.
The results point out that the average level of political knowledge is really low (54 %), though some elementary items (like the prime minister, Mitterrand and Greenpeace) score up to 98 %. The study
reveals as the most significant independent variables : the sex (boys score better than girls), political  participation of the parents, mass media, and (in a negative way) school. Mass media are most  frequently mentioned as the most important sources of political information. Moreover, respondents with a high level of newsmedia exposure do indeed score best. Political education at school shows to have low impact, on the contrary, respondents that mention school as their most important source of political information tend to score worst.

How to Cite:

Pattyn, H., (1986) “Politieke kennis van laatste-jaars-humanioraleerlingen”, Res Publica 28(2), 325-349. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/rp.v28i2.19085