Bowling Young II: How Youth Voluntary Associations Affect Voting in Early Adulthood

The great majority of Americans who are eligible to vote eventually become habitual voters, if they live long enough. But making the transition into voting while young, in the first few elections of one’s eligibility, is more problematic. The speed of this transition is highly correlated with socioeconomic background, reproducing political inequalities across generations, but experiences outside of the family can affect it as well. Using two nationally representative longitudinal datasets, we explore the effects of extracurricular participation in high school on voting in young adulthood, controlling for a host of other factors like family background and school achievement, as well as controlling for propensity to participate in these extracurriculars. Many high school activities are related to increased voting as young adults, though some show a negative effect. These relationships illustrate that the voluntary associations of high school play a roll in the political socialization of youth as they become adult citizens.