Hong Kong adolescents’ participation in political activities : correlates of violent political participation

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine Hong Kong junior secondary school students’ participation in different types of political activities, to identify profiles of adolescents based on their political participation, and to examine potential protective and risk factors associated with adolescents’ violent political participation during the social unrest in Hong Kong from a positive youth development perspective. A total of 2,016 students (age = 13.92 ± 1.10 years) recruited from 24 secondary schools in Hong Kong participated in an online survey six months after the social unrest subsided. The findings provide a comprehensive descriptive profile of Hong Kong adolescents’ political participation. Four clusters of adolescents with homogeneous patterns of political participation were identified: (1) “Politically Inactive” (42.6%); (2) “Legal Participant” (27.5%); (3) “Radical/Violent Activist” (13.0%); and (4) “Peaceful Activist” (17.0%). Logistic regression analysis showed that being female, born in Hong Kong, having a weak local identity and a strong national identity, a high level of bonding, prosocial involvement and prosocial norms, a low level of parental psychological control and family conflict, and a good parent–child relationship were associated with a low risk of adolescents’ violent political participation. The findings point to the needs to further promote social cohesion in Hong Kong society, to help adolescents avoid the potentially essentialized dichotomy in their identity construction, and to develop programs targeting the identified risk and protective factors to prevent adolescents from engaging in political violence and to promote their civic participation.