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Precursors to Political Engagement

In this chapter, we investigate the extent to which discussion network characteristics are associated with feelings of political efficacy and trust, which are essential precursors to political participation. We explore these factors by of ethnorace, nativity, and gender. We compare levels of trust and efficacy across these groups descriptively, then use ordinary least squares reg ression models to examine how network characteristics are associated with efficacy and trust. We supplement these empirical findings with evidence from our qualitative interviews. We find that network characteristics do not influence political trust and political efficacy among the foreign born as much as they do among the U.S. born. We observe limited differences in these relationships between men and women. We also find substantial variation among ethnoracial groups; for example, we find that partisan homogeneity is positively associated with political trust for Blacks and Latinos, but not for Whites or Asian Americans.