Effects of sociodemographic variables and Facebook group membership on students political participation

• Published in: Education and information technologies Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 2235 - 2247
• Main Authors: Mahmood, Qaisar Khalid, Bhutta, Mazhar Hussain, Haq, Muhammad Ahsan ul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: College Students; Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences; Computer Mediated Communication; Computer Science; Computers and Education; Demography; Education; Educational Technology; Factor Analysis; Foreign Countries; Group Membership; Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet); Political behavior; Political participation; Politics; Social Influences; Social Media; Social networks; Sociodemographics; Student Characteristics; Student Participation; University students; User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction; Pakistan; University students; Political participation; Facebook usage
• ISSN: 1360-2357; 1573-7608
• DOI: 10.1007/s10639-018-9715-5

This research study was designed to examine manifestation of online and offline political participation of educated Pakistani youth. The second objective of the study was to locate variation in political participation of the students on the basis of sociodemographic variables and the membership of Facebook pages of the users. The population of the study was university students studying in various degree awarding institutes of Lahore city, capital city of the Punjab province. The data were collected through structured questionnaire from 1245 students of various university students. Factor analysis was performed to see the manifestation of both kinds of political participation. Independent sample t-test and one way ANOVA were used to see differences in political participation of the students based on their sociodemographic variables and membership of Facebook pages. The findings confirmed that university students practiced both kinds of political participation. However, they were more inclined towards online political participation than offline political participation. The results also approved that sociodemographic variables and the membership of Facebook pages had significant effect on online and offline political participation of the students.