Theory Building in Political Socialization

Abstract

A social learning theory approach is applied to the task of explaining levels of political trust. Theoretically derived mediators between the source and the observer—involving sanction, clarity, and status—are developed. Hypotheses that predict stronger source- observer relationships where mediators take on high values are tested. Race and socio economic status are also predicted to mediate the source-observer link. The data are from a study of six high school senior classes in the Atlanta area. The design of the study allows direct measurement of attributes of mothers, fathers, peers, and schools. The social learn ing perspective is most successful in the case of the mother-child link, partially successful for the father and peer groups, and not successful for the school. When all mediators as well as race and socioeconomic status are taken into account, political trust of the high school senior can be better predicted. The results appear strong enough to justify pursuit of the development of social learning theory as a general theory of political socialization.