Political activism, interest, and affective polarization: Dutch adolescents and adults are not that different

What characterizes adolescents as political actors? In this study, we describe patterns of political interest, news consumption, political activism, and affective polarization among Dutch adolescents and directly compare levels of activism and affective polarization between the adolescent sample (N = 507) and two adult samples from the Netherlands (N₁ = 1261, N₂ = 2024). While adolescents show a relatively low interest in Dutch politics, they are more interested in current political issues such as climate change or crime, and access political content primarily via the internet rather than traditional media (e.g. newspapers, television). Further, our results suggest that adolescents are no more or less affectively polarized than adults. While adolescents do not seem to be very involved in traditional, high-effort political activities (e.g., joining parties), they show a high willingness to engage in other forms of political activism, such as signing petitions or donating to political causes. Moreover, their mean willingness to engage in political activism was even higher than that of adults. This study challenges the stereotype of politically disengaged youth and suggests using modern communication channels and relevant political topics to better involve adolescents in the political sphere.