The Effects of Race and *Class on Patterns of Political Participation Among African-American Young Adults

Comparisons between white and African-American young adults show that while involvement in politics declined for both groups since 1960, the drop was more dramatic for African-American young people. Explanations for this decline, however, were not consistent with my hypotheses. More specifically, results in this study challenge initial claims asserting the political importance of racial affinity in the protest era. They show that despite raising levels of social and economic status among African-American young adults in the hip-hop era the effect of social class on political involvement declined. Collectively, these findings suggest that a full understanding of change or the lack thereof in political participation among African-American young adults over the past 30 to 40 years needs to take into account changes in their objective circumstances, changes in their levels of psychological engagement, and changes in how each of these factors affect political involvement.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Spiller, Marwin Jerome

Contributors dc:contributor

• James Kluegel

• Political Science, General

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3153432

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/86207