What Pre- and Early-Adult Factors Drive Civic and Political Participation into Adulthood, and How Does This Shape Social Capital? a Case Study of Ireland

This paper seeks to explore the role of social, economic, demographic and neighbourhood factors during middle-childhood, adolescence and early adulthood in shaping civic and political engagement into adulthood. In addition, it explores how such civic and political engagement, in turn, shape broader indictors of social capital, such as generalised and institutional trust, and positive life outcomes more broadly. This study adopts a multidimensional approach to examining civic and political engagement, covering: involvement in volunteering; taking part in political activities (including low-intensity activities, such as signing a petition, as well as high-intensity activities, such as taking part in a demonstration); level of interest in politics; and being registered to vote. To investigate these questions, the paper draws on 4-waves of representative Irish cohort data, tracking the period from 9 years of age to early adulthood (20 years of age), linked with data on the communities people lived. The findings show that the homes people grew up in (more stable, more educated, more civically engaged) has long-term impacts on propensities to engage in adulthood. Early life involvement in extracurricular activities is also a strong predictor of later life engagement, although type of activity undertaken (e.g., sports or cultural activities) are linked with different forms of engagement in adulthood. Educational trajectories are also closely linked to more engagement, with academic achievement linked to political engagement, and opportunities to participate in clubs in schools linked to civic engagement. Civic/political engagement in adulthood are, in turn, linked to broader social capital, such as trust and further engagement in adulthood, as well as positive life outcomes, such as life satisfaction. Taken together, the findings provide key insights into the role of early life access to resources, processes of socialisation, and inertial processes of participation for later life engagement and social capital.