The formative period of party identification

Much of the research on party identification highlights the importance of parental socialization. Views differ, however, on the mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of party identification and on the timing of effective parental education. This chapter distinguishes two theories of the formative period of party identification: the early impression approach sees childhood as the impressionable phase of party identification; the social identity approach sees adolescence as the crucial phase of parental influence. German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) household panel data covering 32 years of annual measures of party identification support the social identity approach in particular. The party identification of the second generation during adulthood is more strongly affected by the parental party identification experienced during adolescence than during childhood. A similar conclusion follows from the analysis of political transformation: East Germans who experienced reunification as adolescents were more strongly affected by their parents’ first party identification than those who were still children.