Why your child's participation is important

Young people's attachment to democracy is essential for the survival and resilience of our democracy. There have been growing concerns about this attachment in recent years. The Dutch House of Representatives and the government have explicitly expressed their support for involving adolescents in politics. Recently, there has also been a lot of attention for the formation of democratic values in education (click here for more information).

However, there is still insufficient knowledge about the development of these democratic values among adolescents. This makes it difficult to take measures that are essential for a good democracy.

Through research, we aim to map out the development of democratic values among young people. What do adolescents think about politics and democracy? Do they value freedom of speech, equal rights, separation of powers, and citizenship? Will they vote in the future? How and why do they differ from each other? These are the type of questions we aim to answer with our research.

In answering these questions, we contribute to the understanding of the development of democratic values among adolescents and are better able to address potential issues that arise in youngsters' attachment to these values. This research also provides insights that can be used to improve citizenship education in the Netherlands.

In short: your child's contribution is highly important!

Read more about:

en_GBEN