Adleson & O'Neil (1966) Growth of Political Ideas in Adolescence: The Sense of Community

This research aims to assess the growth of political ideas from childhood to adolescence with respect to the development of the sense of community--which incorporates government in its organized forms as well as the social and political collectivity more generally ("the people").


Method: Interviews; a number of hypothetical issues. 1-1.5 hours long. Topics: (1) the scope and limits of political authority, (2) the reciprocal obligations of citizens an state, (3) utopian views of man and society, (4) conceptions of law and justice, (5) the nature of the political process.

Sample:
120 children (60 men, 60 women); 5, 6, 7, 8th grades (30 from each); 2/3 from each grade were of average I.Q.; 1/3 from each grade were of superior I.Q.; interviews in Ann Arbor, MI.

Results:
reported by age group (sex and intelligence were not significant predictors of a development of a sense of community)
11 and 13 year olds:
Cannot transcend a purely personal approach to address matters that require a sociocentric perspective.
Conclusions drawn by authors:
(1) Personalism--(a) the tendency of the child to treal institutions and processes upon the model of persons and personal relationships--government, community and society are abstract ideas; refer to government as "he" or "she." (b) child cannot achieve a socio-centric orientation (aka politics has social as well as personal consequences). governments, then, serve the individual, not the collective, according to the youngest group of children interviewed.
(2) Parts and Wholes
do not conceive of government in a general sense... but in a particular?
(3) Negatives and Positives
11 year olds acknowledge the negative/coercive functions of government; 13 year olds stress the positive functions.
(4) The Future
This idea of the future--that present choices determine the future--is an idea that asserts itself with increasing affect as the child ages (55). As the child ages that envision her or himself in the future, as well. As children age, there are most likely to agree with a minimum education law (i.e. a law requiring all children to stay in school up until 16). As kids age they also become more aware of the communal function of education (57).
(5) Claims of Community--assessing the overlap of "individual freedoms" and "public welfare and safety."
As children age they become more concerned with the community needs (over the individual) (59). Older children, what more, rationalize their decisions, unlike those whom are 11 etc. Two styles of reasoning that begin to make their appearance around the age of 15 are: (1) long range implications of actions (cost-effectiveness approaches) and (2) a readiness to deduce specific choices from general principles (for example, the sanctity of property right or individual rights, both general principles that contain specific issues) (60).
(6) The Force of Principle
"Once principles and ideals are firmly established, the child's approach to political discourse is decisively altered. When he ponders a political choice, he takes into account not only the personal consequences and pragmatic social consequences, but also its consequence in the realm of value" (61). To test this, the authors put a "good" up against a "value."

Discussion:
Adolescent's sense of community is determined by a number of factors that are related to age:
(1) the decline of authoritarianism
--younger kids more likely to accept hierarchy.
(2) a sense of communal needs
--older children have a better understanding of the structure and functioning of the social order as a whole, and the institutions there-in.
(3) the absorption of knowledge and consensus
--as children age they understand consensus
(4) cognitive capacities
--older kids' cog capacity is higher.
(5) the birth of ideology
--as cog capacity increases, ideology arises.