Cynical citizens may produce disaffected children who never participate in public affairs. A telephone survey, however, finds that negativity can inspire parents to discuss politics with children. News use, coviewing, and positive mediation (reinforcing discussion) are interrelated but do not predict political discussion. The results suggest that news viewing and coviewing can have indirect positive effects on political socialization, but that skepticism and negative mediation have more impact. This suggests negativism can be valuable to political socialization.
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Austin et al. (2001) studied this question.
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