Parents and Politics: The Relations Between Media Choice, Parental Influence, and College Students’ Political Views Within the Identity Styles

Political identity permeates people’s everyday experiences and begins to develop early in adolescence. Understanding which variables may influence this development, and in what direction, can provide valuable insight into underlying differences between political groups in the face of increasing polarization. To that end, this study aimed to investigate the political differences between those with each of the identity styles and elucidate the differential roles of parental and news media influences on attitudes concerning welfare and traditional gender roles in those with each identity style. University students (N = 395) answered questions about their identity style as well as their own and their parents’ political identities and media consumption. Those with a normative style were found to hold more conservative political attitudes than those with an informational style, and parental and media influence were predictive of one’s own political identity only among those with the normative style. Political attitudes of those with the diffuse-avoidant style differed from the normative but not informational style, and their political identity was only predicted by media influence. These differences demonstrate the usefulness of considering identity and developmental factors when researching intergroup political phenomena.