What do kids think about politics?
A research program from Angela Bos, Jill Greenlee, Mirya Holman, J. Celeste Lay, and Zoe Oxley
Click over to the Comic tab for a free comic about how anyone can be president!
Click over to the Resources for Teachers tab for classroom activities for K-2 students or students in grades 3-5!
Research projects and publications
This One’s for the Boys: How Gendered Political Socialization Limits Girls’ Political Ambition and Interest
American Political Science Review Online First Ungated version
Angela Bos, Jill Greenlee, Mirya R. Holman, Zoe Oxley, and J. Celeste Lay
This article develops and tests a new theoretical framework, gendered political socialization, which offers important insights into how children perceive gender in politics and the consequences of these perceptions on sex differences in political interest and ambition. Based on data from 1,604 children who live in four different regions across the United States, we find that children not only perceive politics to be a male-dominated space, but with age, girls increasingly see political leadership as a “man’s world.” Simultaneously, as children grow older, they internalize gendered expectations, which direct their interests toward professions that embody the gendered traits that fit with their own sex. One result of this mismatch between women and politics is that girls express lower levels of interest and ambition in politics than do boys.
Partisanship on the Playground: Expressive Party Politics Among Children
Political Research Quarterly Gated, ungated
The beliefs and behaviors of U.S. adults are increasingly sorted and polarized along partisan lines. We draw on studies of partisanship and social identity formation to argue that children develop partisanship as a social identity during the political socialization process. For a group of children, their partisan social identity produces an affective (and largely negative) evaluation of the political world. Analyzing survey data collected from 1500+ children ages 6–12 in 2017 and 2018, we show that some children develop a partisan identity as they learn about politics that operates similarly to other social identities like gender and race. Children’s partisanship is associated with negative affective evaluations of politics, particularly leaders of the other political party. Using an innovative measurement tool, we show affective, negative reactions in children’s open-ended responses, including when they are asked to draw a political leader. Other children simply learn about politics without developing partisan identities and thus hold more positive affective evaluations of the political system.
Politics & Gender 17(1), 1-22. Gated, ungated
J. Celeste Lay, Mirya R. Holman, Angela Bos, Jill Greenlee, Zoe Oxley, and Allison Buffett
While early gendered messages mold children's expectations about the world, we know relatively little about the depictions of women in politics and exposure to gender stereotypes in elementary social studies curricula. In this article, we examine the coverage of political leaders in the children's magazine TIME for Kids, a source commonly found in elementary school classrooms. Coding all political content from this source over six years, we evaluate the presence of women political leaders and rate whether the leaders are described as possessing gender-stereotypic traits. Our results show that although TIME for Kids covers women leaders in greater proportion than their overall representation in politics, the content of the coverage contains gendered messages that portray politics as a stereotypically masculine field. We show that gendered traits are applied differently to men and to women in politics: feminine and communal traits are more likely to be applied to women leaders, while men and women are equally described as having masculine and agentic traits. Portrayals of women political leaders in stereotype-congruent ways is problematic because early messages influence children's views of gender roles.
Children’s Views of the American Presidency
Public Opinion Quarterly 84 (1) 141–157 Gated, ungated
Zoe Oxley, Mirya Holman, Jill Greenlee, Angela Bos, J. Celeste Lay
What do children think about political leaders? In classic political socialization studies of the late 1950s, children tended to hold idealized views of political leaders. In spite of enormous changes in the political landscape, we know little about how these attitudes have changed in the last 60 years. To assess the views of children today, we surveyed over 500 elementary school children (grades 1–6) in the United States. Children no longer possess favorable views of the president. However, the institution of the presidency continues to be held in high esteem.
100 Years of Suffrage and Girls Still Struggle to Find their “Fit” in Politics
PS Political Science and Politics 53(3), 474 - 478. Gated, ungated
Angela Bos, Mirya R. Holman, Jill Greenlee, Zoe Oxley, and J. Celeste Lay
When women gained the national right to vote 100 years ago, remarkable possibilities for their voice and presence in politics opened. However, despite gains in women’s representation, numerous gaps continue to exist in which adult women engage less in politics than men. In identifying and explaining adult gender gaps, little attention has been given to whether gaps emerge among children. This is a pressing issue because children’s perceptions are likely to influence their participation as adults. This article explores whether and how girls and boys differently view politics and their role in it. We report survey data from more than 1,600 children ages 6 to 12 to explore basic gender gaps in political interest and ambition. We argue that these results may reveal the roots of a larger problem: 100 years after women gained suffrage, girls still express less interest and enthusiasm than boys for political life and political office.