Home⇛PCS Review⇛vol. 17 no. 1 (2025)

Which Relationships (Politically) Matter? Filipino University Students’ Political Socialization and Participation During the 2022 Philippine Presidential Elections

Charles Erize P. Ladia

Discipline: Politics

 

Abstract:

How did interpersonal (e.g., family political socialization and social capital) and online (e.g., perceived incivility in online discourse) political socialization of Filipino university students shape their traditional, interpersonal, and online political participation during the 2022 presidential elections? Amidst the emergence of online communication platforms, polarized elections, and the COVID-19 pandemic, political socialization remains a salient factor in political participation research, especially for collective nations like the Philippines. Socializing agents, such as families, peers, schools, and the media, still hold significant influence in shaping the political attitudes and behaviors of the younger demographic. In this study, social capital is found to strongly predict all three modes of political participation among Filipino university students. Their family political socialization primarily affects interpersonal political talk; interestingly, their perceived incivility on social media did not influence their participation in political affairs. Understanding the pivotal roles that relational dynamics and levels of socialization play in political participation is essential for encouraging youth political engagement, which has exhibited a downward trend in recent years.



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