Religion and Youth´s Political Engagement: A Quantitative Approach

Abstract

This study examines how religious belonging might be an underlying factor for youth students’ political interest and participation. We use data from a survey conducted in 2010 on Swedish junior and senior high school students1. Our dependent variable is an aggregated measure for Political Engagement, which is compiled using Principal Components Analysis, and regression analysis is used to estimate a model with religious feelings included as the main explanatory variable. Different specifications are also estimated to study any potential differences between religions. Both religious feelings and belonging are found to have a significant impact on political engagement.