New Publication: European Identity and Political Participation in Youth

Adolescence is a stage of life characterized by biological and cognitive developmental processes, as well as social changes. It is therefore particularly relevant to identity and political development. We recently published two new papers on these topics. 

The first article examined adolescents’ European identity development considering school experiences as relevant socialization factors. We assessed European identity in 9^th grade students at the beginning and end of the school year to capture longitudinal changes. The results show that European identity remains relatively stable over the course of a school year. Furthermore, evidence suggests that a good relationship with one’s teachers can support students’ identity development (i.e., exploring what being European means and securely deciding to be one or not).

The second article examined forms of political participation in youth and whether their preferred forms of participation change. To this end, young people in Greece were surveyed twice within a year. The majority of young people stayed informed about political issues, for example through (social) media or discussions, but did not actively participate in political life. A smaller proportion showed a tendency towards activist behaviour, and very few were involved in conventional political processes (e.g. party membership). Here, too, there was a relatively high degree of stability over the course of a year.

Together, both studies demonstrate the diversity of political development during adolescence – and the opportunities (but also limitations) that arise for educational contexts. Further details are freely available here:

Körner, A., Eckstein. K., Mayer, A.-M. Jugert, P., & Noack, P. (2026). European Identity in Youth: Longitudinal Dynamics and the Role of School Experiences. Journal of Adolescence, 0, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.70097

Kehl, J., Mayer, A. M., Morales, K., Güleç, Y., te Brinke, L. W., Motti-Stefanidi, F., & Pavlopoulos, V. (2026). Between interest and activism: a person-centred approach to political participation among Greek adolescents. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23(1), 97–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2025.2587754