A study of the political socialization process among Southern Negro high school students

Abstract

This project was a broad investigation into the political socialization process among a selected population of segregated Negro High School students in Houston, Texas, Its purpose was to gather empirical data on this heretofore neglected area of study. It is hoped that these data may serve to stimulate further and more specific socialization research. The paper presents a general model of political socialization, within which previous research findings as well as the results of this research are organized. Forty-nine descriptions of the socialization agents, personality variables, and political attitudes and orientations of 222 sophomore and senior Negro high school students were obtained from a survey questionnaire and school records. These were the basis for a computer comparison, yielding 1,176 scattergrams comparing each of the forty-nine da turn-types with each other. Through use of the product-moment coefficient of correlation, the chi-square test of independence and the phi coefficient, the most significant relationships were identified and reported. Many specific findings are cited, most of which are consonant with the literature on political socialization in general. The great interdependence of the many socialization agents and variables obscured the identification of any single variable or group of related variables as being highly significant statistically. It is hoped that a heuristic purpose has been served: that further research will be stimulated by these broad findings.