The Political Participation of Portuguese Young Adults on Social Media: A Civic Voluntarism and Reasoned Action Approach

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data SciencePolitical participation has been decreasing in Portugal in the past few decades, with special uninterest shown by the younger generation. The concerns for our democracy are becoming increasingly more evident with the lack of generational replacement, evidencing a lack of representation in the political figures in our country. Young adults seem to find a way to communicate their political visions in the online space. This study designs and evaluates a model based on the theory of reasoned action and the civic voluntarism model to better understand the drivers of online political participation. The Moral Foundations Theory was also used to design a moral profile of the respondents. The study focused on Portuguese young adults, from the ages of 18 to 30 years old, taking a sample size of 236 respondents. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data through SmartPLS software. The results show that the resources (technological, time, and financial) aren’t statistically significant in estimating the ability of young people to express themselves online. Political engagement, political efficacy, political interest, and political awareness are significantly associated with the intention to participate in online political conversations. The effect of cross-cutting and like-minded discourses (political interactions) is crucial to estimating the dependent variable in the analysis. When looking at the TRA factors, attitude towards general political participation is positively influencing the intentions to participate in online political expression, but the subjective norms don’t seem to seem decisive for Portuguese young adults' online political participation. The results of this study help the political parties and party youths, and governmental institutions better understand how to properly interact on social media with young adults and what drives them to the online political discourse. The theoretical implications of this study also reassure the importance of the online space as a propeller for democratic expression in younger Portuguese generations