Cognitive Structures, Political Environment, and Increased Political Awareness in Children : A Developmental Approach / Kenneth D. Bailey.

A conceptual framework and a unique data collection technique are proposed as a means for studying the relationship between cognitive structure and political awareness in children. Most researchers have dealt with cognitive development and political socialization research by examining children in different grade levels at one point in time. However, in this study, the same children are interviewed at three different points in time: pre-Watergate, during Watergate, and post-Nixon. The sample population included two urban school districts and six rural school districts, representing two contiguous counties located in the geographical region commonly known as the Ozarks. The project required the administration of interviews to students in the third, sixth, and ninth grades followed by a second set of interviews with the same students as fourth, seventh, and tenth graders and a third set of interviews with the these students as fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders. This study represents an attempt at longitudinal research on the acquisition of political orientations by children and suggests a key technique for determining whether childhood orientations have any effect on adult political actions. (Author/DE)

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