Nuorisobarometri_2012_Verkkojulkaisu

article abStractS
YOUNg peOple’S FAMilY
bAcKgROUNDS AND
pOliticiSAtiON AccORDiNg tO
tHe YOUtH bAROMeteR StUDY
Tuukka Tomperi
The article deals with the family’s influence
on the political socialisation of young people,
meaning the formation of their political attitudes
and opinions. The topic has been the subject of
many studies in a number of countries in recent
years, and has become a matter of interest in
Finland too. It is known from previous studies
that one’s family background exerts influences
on one’s politics. The article will focus on
what the 2012 Youth Barometer data reveals
about young people’s political opinions and
how they are affected by family background and
their parents. The paper looks at the attitudes
that young people and their parents have in
common, the family’s conversation patterns,
and the family’s social status and resources.
Resources are divided into financial, social and
cultural capital, and the question is how they
affect political capital. The data reveals that if
families discuss politics, it is very likely that
young people will develop an interest in politics
too. Furthermore, if young people are aware of
their parents’ political attitudes they are more
likely to become interested in politics, perhaps
as a result of the family’s conversations and
the way that the parents express their political
views openly and actively. The parents’ levels
of education also seems to be connected to
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young people’s interest in politics, although not
as much as the previously-mentioned factors.
iN wHAt wAY iS beiNg
DiSADVANtAgeD iNHeRiteD?
Matti Kortteinen & Marko Elovainio
The article studies the question of whether
marginalization is linked to learned elements
that are inherited and, if so, what is “inherited”?
The starting point for the paper is the recent
international literature on the so-called culture
of poverty (Small e.g. 2010) and previous
Finnish research (Kortteinen & Tuomikoski
1998, Kortteinen & Elovainio 2005). The data
comes from the Youth Barometer 2012 study,
in which 1902 young people and 597 of their
parents were interviewed. The analysis focuses
on examining the kind of indicator which
conversely depicts the successful socialization
of young people, namely social disintegration.
Successful socialization means e.g. that young
people have learned to trust other people and
commonly-agreed rules, morals and friendships
mean something to them. The analysis
demonstrates that societal disintegration is
passed down from parent to child and it explains
young people’s low grades in school. The issue
does not however seem to be the” inheritance”
of the so-called poverty culture but rather the
collapse of collective and established values.
The result is thus that this kind of social and
cultural collapse seems to be inherited through
the generations and plays a part in the process in
which marginalization is “inherited”. The end
the article has a discussion on the socio-political
meaning of the results.
VOlUNtARY ActiVitY iN YOUNg
peOple’S iDeAS AND MOtiVeS
Elina Kuusisto & Anne Birgitta Pessi
The study looks at voluntary work from young
people’s perspectives. 1902 young people
between the ages of 15 and 29 participated in
the study. Of the participants, 37 % (N=697)
had participated in voluntary work within the