Why Are Swedish-speaking Minority Adolescents More Eager to Vote than Majority Adolescents?

Previous research has identified for example political interest, political self-efficacy, civic duty to vote, and a homogeneous political atmosphere as important prerequisites of political participation. However, little is known on how they operate among minorities, who have an inherent motivation to protect their minority rights. In this article, I examine the relationships between minority status, political self-efficacy, civic duty to vote, and shared party identification regarding intention to vote among Swedish-speaking minority and Finnish-speaking majority adolescents in a multilevel structural equation model using a nationally representative two-wave panel data. Initial results indicate that the significantly higher voting intentions among the minority can partly be derived to their higher level of political self-efficacy.