Adolescents’ development of approval of violent political action: evidence from six waves of longitudinal data

Abstract

The overarching aim of this study is to understand better the over time development adolescents approval of violent political action. Using up to six waves of longitudinal survey data for two cohorts of Swedish adolescents (N = 1987), this study examined: (1) the over time development of approval of violent political means. And, (2) in mediation models, the explanatory capacity of the brooder’s route and the delinquent’s route, two theoretical explanations put forth by the literature. The results show that approval of violent political means develops as a dynamic process. Whereas indicators of both the brooder’s and the delinquent’s route were both related to approval of violent political means, only delinquency mediated (partial mediation) the over time relation of the outcome. The findings were discussed in the light of what proximity of, on the one hand, ideology or religiosity implies, and on the other, what other kinds of violence than political implies for the development of adolescents’ approval of violent political means.