| Familial political socialization, the process by which people develop their personal set of
ideologies and other perspectives, is a theory that has been accepted for many years. Yet, there
are reasons to question the theory, as anecdotal observation and population trends appear to
indicate that the theory may not be functioning as expected. This study examines the role of
family strength on familial political socialization in the context of political ideologies, political
party identification, and political policy preferences. The literature would suggest that there will
be substantial overlap between the political views of a parent and their child. This study
examines the extent to which this is the case across a number of political domains. Using two
separate datasets, one was collected within a mid-sized university in the United States and the
other is a large public opinion survey, this study examines the interactions between the variables
multiple time and in through multiple models. The findings indicate that familial political
socialization is not functioning as predicted.
Keywords: congruence with parents, familial political socialization, family strength, ideology,
party identification, and policy preference |