Factors on political involvement among university student in Malaysia

Mohd Yusri Ibrahim; Mujibu Abd Muis; Muhamad Hisommudin Bakar; Mohd Azlan Zainal; Mohd Jalaluddin Hashim; Mohd Hazlami Jusoh

doi:10.31893/multiscience.2024060

Keywords:

political involvement

political engagement

youth

Abstract

For a country to remain stable, young people's participation in politics is crucial. Today's youth, even university students who ought to be at the forefront of this crucial issue, are becoming less and less interested in participating in politics. The purpose of this study was to determine the elements that influence university students' political participation. A cross-sectional survey of 417 university students from Peninsular Malaysia's East Coast was done. The AMOS programme was used to analyze the data obtained through the questionnaire using the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results demonstrate that factors such as attitude, family, media, and socializing have a favorable impact on university students' political involvement. This conclusion is supposed to serve as a foundation for different stakeholders to take all required steps to boost the involvement of university students in politics.
References
1. Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.
2. Allen, S., Fahey, J. (2020). Governmental institutions and political engagement in higher education. Journal of Political Science Education 16(1):72-84.
3. Almond, G., Kessel, J.H., Bowler, S. (2021). Political participation in America: Development and change. Routledge.
4. Arnold, R. D., Alvarez, R. M. (2018). Re-examining the interpretation of political knowledge: Implications for citizens and democracy. Journal of Political Science Education 14(3):372-387.
5. Bakir, V., McStay, A. (2018). Fake news and the economy of emotions: Problems, causes, solutions. Digital Journalism 6(2):154–175. DOI:10.1080/21670811.2017.1345645
6. Bennett, S., Maton, K., Kervin, L. (2017). The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology 48(4):702–718.
7. Binder, A. J., Wood, R. T. (2019). Civic Voluntarism, Political Participation, and Trust in Government: Evidence from the Departments of Classics. Journal of Political Science Education 15(1):25-38.
8. Bode, L., Vraga, E. K. (2018). In related news, that was wrong: The correction of misinformation through related stories functionality in social media. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 95(4):926-944.
9. Brady, H. E., Schlozman, K. L., Verba, S. (2019). Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People's Voice in the New Gilded Age. Princeton University Press.
10. Carleton, N. R. (2019). Inspirational pathways for tomorrow's leaders: Toward a social identity and leadership skills intervention. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement 51(3):214.
11. Dahya, N., Nix, E., Smith, D., Leeper, T. J. (2021). Voter Turnout and Youth Mobilization: Theory and Evidence from the United States. American Political Science Review 115(1):200-216.
12. Dalton, R. J., Klingeman, H. D. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior. Oxford University Press.
13. Estrada, A. X., Pierce, B., Frase, M. J. (2020). Campus Political Climate and Student Political Engagement: An Empirical Analysis. The Journal of Higher Education 91(6):968-992.
14. Fisler, R., Zeckhauser, R., Schrag, F. (2019). Politically active students care more and know more. Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, 1(2), 149-176.
15. Flanagan, C. A., Levine, P. (2018). Civic identity: Tools for designing learning environments. In Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction (pp. 223–236). Routledge.
16. Gildersleeve, C. (2019). Higher education and civic engagement: international perspectives. Routledge.
17. Ginwright, S. A., Cammarota, J., Noguera, P. (2019). Beyond Resistance! Youth Activism and Community Change: New Democratic Possibilities for Practice and Policy for America's Youth. Columbia University Press.
18. Goidel. R. K., Gross, M. (2019). The State of Civics Education: Preparing Students for Citizenship in an Era of Disruption. Journal of Political Science Education 15(1):1-19.
19. Goren, P. (2019). Unpacking the black box of causality: Learning from the methodology of political psychology. Cambridge University Press.
20. Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E. (2014). Multivariate data analysis. Pearson New International Edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited
21. HERI. (2020). The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2020. Higher Education Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles.
22. Hillygus, D. S., Shields, T. G. (2019). The persuadable voter: Wedge issues in presidential campaigns. Princeton University Press.
23. Hosseini, A., Azman, H. (2021). The Role of Social Media in Developing Political Literacy and Civic Engagement among Youth. Asian Journal of Youth Studies 5(2):68-78.
24. Jenkins, K., Saucier, C., Lovelace, M. (2018). Predicting political participation using the theory of planned behavior. Social Science Quarterly 99(4):1598-1613.
25. Jost, J. T., Federico, C. M., Napier, J. L. (2018). Political ideology: Its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annual Review of Psychology 69:437-458.
26. Kim, J., Park, Y., Pyun, D. Y. (2018). The impacts of social and political participation on university students’ democratic citizenship: A nationwide survey of South Korea. International Journal of Educational Development 61:59-69.
27. Lelkes, Y., Krysan, M., Smith, E. R. (2021). Psychological mechanisms underlying American political involvement. Journal of Social and Political Psychology 9(1):49-69.
28. Luskin, R. C., Bullock, J. G. (2021). Elite influence on public opinion: Survey research and experiments in political science. Cambridge University Press.
29. Matthews, J. L. (2021). Parental influence on college students' political engagement: The role of parental political behavior, attitude, efficacy, and communication. Journal of Adolescence 88:307-316.
30. Medeiros, M., Almond, G. A. (2020). Engaging young people in political science: an interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Political Science Education 16(2):139-146.
31. Motta, M., Gentzkow, M., Gross, J. H. (2018). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 23(2):69-75.
32. Mydin, N. M. M., Abdullah, A. A., Hussin, K. (2021). The Impact of Encouragement from Peers on Higher Education Students' Political Participation in Malaysia. Journal of Educational and Social Research 11(2):267-272.
33. Myers, R. A. (2017). Generationing democracy: Youth activism and Canadian democratic commitment. Political Science 69(1):26-50.
34. Neundorf, A., Adams, J. (2018). Handbook of research methods and applications in political science. Edward Elgar Publishing.
35. Nweekwele, A. C., Nsa, E. O., Umana, I. E. (2019). Attitude and Political Engagement among University Students in Nigeria. The Journal of Education and Social Science 11(2):30-38.
36. O'Toole, T. P., Edwards, P. A., Straus, R. S., Evans, B. C. (2021). Associations of student political identification with knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and wellness. Journal of College Student Development 62(2):156–173.
37. Salleh, N. A. M., Amiruddin, Z. R., Yusuf, N. (2021). Parental involvement, family communication and political involvement among university students in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Communication 37(1):201-215.
38. Saunders, C., Comer, J., Hsu, S. (2020). Rethinking the Role of On-Campus Organizations in Political Engagement. Journal of College and Character 21(4):255-260.
39. Sazlina, S. G., Jais, J. K., Rahman, M. N. A. (2021). Interaction behavior, curriculum, and student's political involvement: evidence from Malaysia. International Journal of Ethics and Systems 37(3):485-498.
40. Schlichtman, J. J (2016). The perfect storm of youth engagement: A case study of Hurricane Katrina. Geoforum 75:112-121.
41. Stetsenko, A., Simpkins, S. D. (2021). Promoting political engagement in the colleges and universities of democracy. Democracy & Education 29(1):1-5.
42. Traugott, M.W., Wlezien, C. (2019). The Sage handbook of public opinion research. Sage Publications.
43. Trussler, M., Soroka, S. N. (2019). It's (Change in) the (Future) Economy, Stupid: Economic Indicators, the Media, and Public Opinion. Journal of Politics 81(2):522-526.
44. Van Bavel, J. J., Pereira, A. (2018). The partisan brain: An identity-based model of political belief. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 22(3):213–224. DOI:10.1016/j.tics.2018.01.004
45. Van Duyn, E. (2019). Americans are politically sorting themselves by education. The Conversation.
46. Van Stekelenburg, J., Klandermans, B., van der Meer, T. (2019). Back to the future? Institutional reproduction and generational trends in young people's political engagement. Journal of Social and Political Psychology 7(1):384-406.
47. Wojcieszak, M. (2020). You can't be yourself in politics? Negative campaigning and the effects of authenticity on political participation and efficacy. Political Psychology 41(3):425–441.
48. Wolfinger, R. E. (2018). Who Votes Now? Demographics, Issues, Inequality, and Turnout in the United States. Princeton University Press.
49. Yamamura, E., Andrés, A. R., Miyazaki, Y. (2020). Does government performance matter? The impact of watershed management policies on the youth unemployment rate. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 27(3):2827-2835.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to cite

Ibrahim, M. Y., Abd Muis, M., Bakar, M. H., Zainal, M. A., Hashim, M. J., & Jusoh, M. H. (2023). Factors on political involvement among university student in Malaysia. Multidisciplinary Science Journal, 6(5), 2024060. https://doi.org/10.31893/multiscience.2024060

[1] Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.

[2] Allen, S., Fahey, J. (2020). Governmental institutions and political engagement in higher education. Journal of Political Science Education 16(1):72-84.

[3] Almond, G., Kessel, J.H., Bowler, S. (2021). Political participation in America: Development and change. Routledge.

[4] Arnold, R. D., Alvarez, R. M. (2018). Re-examining the interpretation of political knowledge: Implications for citizens and democracy. Journal of Political Science Education 14(3):372-387.

[5] Bakir, V., McStay, A. (2018). Fake news and the economy of emotions: Problems, causes, solutions. Digital Journalism 6(2):154–175. DOI:10.1080/21670811.2017.1345645

[6] Bennett, S., Maton, K., Kervin, L. (2017). The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence. British Journal of Educational Technology 48(4):702–718.

[7] Binder, A. J., Wood, R. T. (2019). Civic Voluntarism, Political Participation, and Trust in Government: Evidence from the Departments of Classics. Journal of Political Science Education 15(1):25-38.

[8] Bode, L., Vraga, E. K. (2018). In related news, that was wrong: The correction of misinformation through related stories functionality in social media. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 95(4):926-944.

[9] Brady, H. E., Schlozman, K. L., Verba, S. (2019). Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People's Voice in the New Gilded Age. Princeton University Press.

[10] Carleton, N. R. (2019). Inspirational pathways for tomorrow's leaders: Toward a social identity and leadership skills intervention. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement 51(3):214.

[11] Dahya, N., Nix, E., Smith, D., Leeper, T. J. (2021). Voter Turnout and Youth Mobilization: Theory and Evidence from the United States. American Political Science Review 115(1):200-216.

[12] Dalton, R. J., Klingeman, H. D. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior. Oxford University Press.

[13] Estrada, A. X., Pierce, B., Frase, M. J. (2020). Campus Political Climate and Student Political Engagement: An Empirical Analysis. The Journal of Higher Education 91(6):968-992.

[14] Fisler, R., Zeckhauser, R., Schrag, F. (2019). Politically active students care more and know more. Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, 1(2), 149-176.

[15] Flanagan, C. A., Levine, P. (2018). Civic identity: Tools for designing learning environments. In Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction (pp. 223–236). Routledge.

[16] Gildersleeve, C. (2019). Higher education and civic engagement: international perspectives. Routledge.

[17] Ginwright, S. A., Cammarota, J., Noguera, P. (2019). Beyond Resistance! Youth Activism and Community Change: New Democratic Possibilities for Practice and Policy for America's Youth. Columbia University Press.

[18] Goidel. R. K., Gross, M. (2019). The State of Civics Education: Preparing Students for Citizenship in an Era of Disruption. Journal of Political Science Education 15(1):1-19.

[19] Goren, P. (2019). Unpacking the black box of causality: Learning from the methodology of political psychology. Cambridge University Press.

[20] Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E. (2014). Multivariate data analysis. Pearson New International Edition. Essex: Pearson Education Limited

[21] HERI. (2020). The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2020. Higher Education Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles.

[22] Hillygus, D. S., Shields, T. G. (2019). The persuadable voter: Wedge issues in presidential campaigns. Princeton University Press.

[23] Hosseini, A., Azman, H. (2021). The Role of Social Media in Developing Political Literacy and Civic Engagement among Youth. Asian Journal of Youth Studies 5(2):68-78.

[24] Jenkins, K., Saucier, C., Lovelace, M. (2018). Predicting political participation using the theory of planned behavior. Social Science Quarterly 99(4):1598-1613.

[25] Jost, J. T., Federico, C. M., Napier, J. L. (2018). Political ideology: Its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annual Review of Psychology 69:437-458.

[26] Kim, J., Park, Y., Pyun, D. Y. (2018). The impacts of social and political participation on university students’ democratic citizenship: A nationwide survey of South Korea. International Journal of Educational Development 61:59-69.

[27] Lelkes, Y., Krysan, M., Smith, E. R. (2021). Psychological mechanisms underlying American political involvement. Journal of Social and Political Psychology 9(1):49-69.

[28] Luskin, R. C., Bullock, J. G. (2021). Elite influence on public opinion: Survey research and experiments in political science. Cambridge University Press.

[29] Matthews, J. L. (2021). Parental influence on college students' political engagement: The role of parental political behavior, attitude, efficacy, and communication. Journal of Adolescence 88:307-316.

[30] Medeiros, M., Almond, G. A. (2020). Engaging young people in political science: an interdisciplinary approach. Journal of Political Science Education 16(2):139-146.

[31] Motta, M., Gentzkow, M., Gross, J. H. (2018). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 23(2):69-75.

[32] Mydin, N. M. M., Abdullah, A. A., Hussin, K. (2021). The Impact of Encouragement from Peers on Higher Education Students' Political Participation in Malaysia. Journal of Educational and Social Research 11(2):267-272.

[33] Myers, R. A. (2017). Generationing democracy: Youth activism and Canadian democratic commitment. Political Science 69(1):26-50.

[34] Neundorf, A., Adams, J. (2018). Handbook of research methods and applications in political science. Edward Elgar Publishing.

[35] Nweekwele, A. C., Nsa, E. O., Umana, I. E. (2019). Attitude and Political Engagement among University Students in Nigeria. The Journal of Education and Social Science 11(2):30-38.

[36] O'Toole, T. P., Edwards, P. A., Straus, R. S., Evans, B. C. (2021). Associations of student political identification with knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and wellness. Journal of College Student Development 62(2):156–173.

[37] Salleh, N. A. M., Amiruddin, Z. R., Yusuf, N. (2021). Parental involvement, family communication and political involvement among university students in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Communication 37(1):201-215.

[38] Saunders, C., Comer, J., Hsu, S. (2020). Rethinking the Role of On-Campus Organizations in Political Engagement. Journal of College and Character 21(4):255-260.

[39] Sazlina, S. G., Jais, J. K., Rahman, M. N. A. (2021). Interaction behavior, curriculum, and student's political involvement: evidence from Malaysia. International Journal of Ethics and Systems 37(3):485-498.

[40] Schlichtman, J. J (2016). The perfect storm of youth engagement: A case study of Hurricane Katrina. Geoforum 75:112-121.

[41] Stetsenko, A., Simpkins, S. D. (2021). Promoting political engagement in the colleges and universities of democracy. Democracy & Education 29(1):1-5.

[42] Traugott, M.W., Wlezien, C. (2019). The Sage handbook of public opinion research. Sage Publications.

[43] Trussler, M., Soroka, S. N. (2019). It's (Change in) the (Future) Economy, Stupid: Economic Indicators, the Media, and Public Opinion. Journal of Politics 81(2):522-526.

[44] Van Bavel, J. J., Pereira, A. (2018). The partisan brain: An identity-based model of political belief. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 22(3):213–224. DOI:10.1016/j.tics.2018.01.004

[45] Van Duyn, E. (2019). Americans are politically sorting themselves by education. The Conversation.

[46] Van Stekelenburg, J., Klandermans, B., van der Meer, T. (2019). Back to the future? Institutional reproduction and generational trends in young people's political engagement. Journal of Social and Political Psychology 7(1):384-406.

[47] Wojcieszak, M. (2020). You can't be yourself in politics? Negative campaigning and the effects of authenticity on political participation and efficacy. Political Psychology 41(3):425–441.

[48] Wolfinger, R. E. (2018). Who Votes Now? Demographics, Issues, Inequality, and Turnout in the United States. Princeton University Press.

[49] Yamamura, E., Andrés, A. R., Miyazaki, Y. (2020). Does government performance matter? The impact of watershed management policies on the youth unemployment rate. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 27(3):2827-2835.

Abstract

References

How to cite