Uppeldisaðferðir foreldra og viðhorf ungmenna til virkrar borgaralegrar þátttöku fólks

For the past decade discussion about the importance of promoting young people's civic engagement has increased both within the academic world as well as in the society. The aim of this study is to explore young people's perceptions of parenting styles in relation to their views on people's civic engagement in a democratic society. Civic engagement refers firstly to conventional civic engagement (e.g. voting, political discussions) and secondly to participation in social movements (e.g. volunteering, human rights advocacy and environmental protection). The study is apart of the research project, Young People's Civic Awareness and Engagement in a Democratic Society. The participants were 1042, 14 or 18 year olds, attending secondary schools in three different areas in Iceland. They responded to a questionnaire during school hours. The main results suggest that the more support and encouragement the young people experienced from their parents, the more likely they were to have positive views on people's conventional and social movement engagement. Also, the young people who experienced their parents as overseeing them in their daily lives (e.g. knowing who their friends are) were more likely to have positive views on people's engagements in social movements. The young people who had volunteered were more likely to have positive views on people's civic engagements; also, fi their parents had participated in political or volunteer work. The results emerged when controlling forage, gender and parent's socio-economic status. The main conclusions of the findings indicate the important role parents play in their children's civic upbringing.