Predictors of youth electoral absenteeism in Serbia

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the importance of some of thedeterminants of youth electoral absenteeism, which are in the focusof the predominant explanatory models of electoral participation –socio-demographic, party identification and cognitive model. Therelevance of numerous socio-demographic characteristics, partyidentification, political cynicism, political interest, and political knowledgeas predictors of youth electoral absenteeism were analyzed. Thisresearch was conducted on a sample of 788 fourth grade secondaryschool students attending 25 secondary schools in Belgrade. Theresults indicated that party identification, political interest, organizationalmembership and mother’s level of education were significant predictorsof electoral absenteeism. For young persons without party identificationthe odds of non-voting were 3.6 times higher than the non-voting oddsof their counterparts but with party identification. The odds of electoralabsenteeism increased with the decreasing level of political interestor organizational membership as well as with the increasing level ofmother’s level of education. The obtained results were discussed in thecontext of the proposed explanatory model of electoral participation aswell as some previous research findings.