Young Australians’ Confidence in Political Institutions and Their Civic Engagement

This report explores young Australians’ attitudes toward key political institutions and their civic engagement. Data was collected from the Life Patterns Cohort 2 participants who were 32 years of age in 2020. The report is framed by debates about the expectations that might be held about young people’s political engagement and participation in formal political processes, and the extent to which disengagement is simply an age-based phenomenon or a generational shift in attitudes and approaches, which is reflected in the views of young adults. The report presents a short review of literature about citizenship experiences of Australian young people, followed by a brief overview of the methods used to collect and analyse the data. The results are presented in two parts: level of political confidence (Section 4) and level of civic participation (Section 5). The report closes with a summary of the findings, and a discussion of the implications of these findings for enhancing the robustness of Australian democracy.