Children’s Views of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: Gender, Racial/Ethnic, and Immigration Issues

• In Event: 1-017 - Social Justice and U.S. Politics: Multidisciplinary Insights into Children's Political Development

Integrative Statement

Introduction

National elections increase attention to politics among both adults and children and provide rich opportunities for political socialization. The 2016 U.S. presidential election also highlighted issues of social justice concerning gender, race/ethnicity, and immigration. Hillary Clinton’s historic role as the first female major-party candidate for president provided an opportunity to examine children’s knowledge and views of women's underrepresentation in U.S. government. Similarly, Donald Trump’s characterizations of Mexicans, statements about crime and urban areas, and immigration policies drew attention to social justice issues, perhaps especially for Latinx and African American individuals. We sought to test theoretically-derived hypotheses concerning children's views of social justice issues, as well as social group variations in children's political knowledge and attitudes, within the context of the 2016 election.

Method

Participants were 187 children (ages 5 – 11) from five sites (counties) in four US states. Sites differed in racial, economic, and ideological composition (e.g., county-level support for Trump ranged from 27% to 71%). The sample was racially diverse (25 African American, 50 Latinx, 81 White, and 21 multiracial / other race participants). Children were interviewed before and after the election to assess their (a) knowledge of the candidates and women's under-representation in politics, (b) attitudes towards Trump and Clinton, as well as women's political participation, and (c) interest in politics.

Results

Children demonstrated both awareness of, and interest in, the presidential election. Approximately 80% of children identified the two candidates by name and 90% reported some candidate traits or policies. Their knowledge, as well as attitudes (e.g., candidate preferences), reflected both parental and community-level attitudes. In contrast to some previous research, African American and Latinx children were no less interested in the election than White children.

Children showed little knowledge of women's underrepresentation in government; only 65% of children knew that no woman has ever served as president of the U.S. (a lower percentage than in previous studies), and few children could name a woman who had served as president of another country or a leader of the women’s rights movement. Children from families with high support for Clinton, however, were more knowledgeable about women's underrepresentation. Children’s tendency to attribute the lack of female presidents to discrimination increased with age, and was more common among girls than boys.

Immigration was the political issue that children most commonly mentioned. Approximately 40% of children made at least one reference to Trump’s immigration policies (e.g., a 7-year-old stated, "Trump doesn’t want people from Mexico to come into the U.S.”).

Negative traits of candidates were mentioned as often as positive ones (44% and 40%, respectively). Concerningly, children described the candidates as, for example, “evil,” “wicked,” “racist,” “total crap,” “a big fat liar,” and “the worst person in the world.” Latinx children had more negative responses to the election outcome than White children, reflecting perhaps their awareness of Trump’s statements regarding immigration. The implications of these and additional findings for theories of political development and youth civic engagement will be described.

Authors

• Meagan M. Patterson, University of Kansas
  Presenting Author

• Rebecca Bigler, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Erin Pahlke, Whitman College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Christia Spears Brown, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy Roberson Hayes, The University of Texas, Tyler
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chantal Ramirez, The University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrew Nelson, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author