The Role of the Family in Political Learning of Elementary School Students in Taiwan

Abstract

The family is an important agent of political socialization. Parents are undoubtedly the primary source of a child’s political learning. Political values, like genes, are transmitted from parents to children. Not only do individuals acquire political values and attitudes from their parents, but at the same time the political system is also sustained and developed.\nThis paper investigates the content of political attitudes and values that elementary school students acquire in the socialization environment of the family, measures the extent of correspondence in parent-child political attitudes and values, and examines aspects of family structure which conceivably affect transmission flows.\nThe preliminary findings of this paper are that elementary school students in Taiwan already possess attitudes regarding the political world. The rate of parent-child agreement, measured in eleven sets of variables reflecting political attitudes and values, ranged from 22.87 percent to 56.93 percent-of which only one set was less than 30 percent. In regard to the correlation of correspondence, the chi-square test of national identity, national loyalty, and party preference all held statistical significance. With the exception of majority rule and sense of political efficacy (which both had less correlation of agreement), the other six sets of variables of democratic attitudes and values all held at least a 0.05 tau-b coefficient. Additionally, in comparing the six familial socialization factors of correspondence in parent-child political attitudes and values, we find that the familial politicization factor was the most influential socialization factor In total, out of forty-eight tau-b correlation coefficient tests of eight sets of variables of democratic values and attitudes, there are thirty-nine tests that had statistical relations with tau-b coefficient above 0.05. Therefore, this research demonstrates that in the political learning of children in Taiwan, political attitudes and values are indeed transmitted from parents to children.