Research Project

Logan Chenworth
Overview

When the group first gathered together to discuss possible

topics, there were ideas floating around as to what would be
something the entire group felt was important. At first the most likely
topic was about parents and the influence they had on their children
and politics in general. This was the case because as young adults
move into adulthood and all of its responsibilities, many will begin to
get involved in politics and consequently voting. It is important to see
where many Americans get their political opinions, because this
shows where the future may be headed, and if it can be changed (more
on that later.) This however brought forth discussion towards the
elections and in turn about voting. The group was curious to see what
kind of influence parents had with regards to their children and voting.
So it was decided that the research would be centered on this.
Incidentally a few other questions came up as well, so they were
included in the list of things to be discovered.

The topic is about the influence of parents and their young adult
childrens voting decisions, and how much (if any) they correlate. All
that had to be done now was to come up with a basic question to
adequately answer the topic under review, as well as questions that
would address the other curiosities that came up (and find a way to
get them answered of course). The simple survey was a viable option,
and could be carried out easily and quickly, and results could be
calculated equally so. So it was decided that the group would each
make their own questionnaires, print them out, and get ten people to
fill one out for each person in the group (totaling 30 people). This was
easily done and carried out before finally the group gathered together
again to analyze the results of the survey, and compile them into
usable information that any person could easily understand. This was
all carried out to end with the results that follow.

Research Project

Logan Chenworth
Hypothesis

The official hypothesis that was decided upon is as follows: It is

believed that parents have a major role in political influence of their
children, and that many children take their parents political views and
use them as their own. This in turn translates into similar voting
practices by both parents and children, children mirroring their
parents.

There are a number of reasons behind the importance of why

people vote the way they do and how they get to voting in the way that
they do. The first reason being that the direction of the United States
of America is chosen indirectly by voting. When citizens elect a
certain candidate to be the president of the United States, he is going
to implement what he believes is best for the country. This means that
if a citizen wants, for example, free college, that citizen is going to
vote for a candidate that promises providing free college. Why is this
important? It is important because when a fresh young adult is able to
vote for the first time, and he has been influenced by his or her
parents, they may not vote for what it is they want for America, but
rather what their parents want.

Another reason as to why a child simply taking their parents

point of view is important, is because it can help predict future
politics. For example, if the majority of republican parents pass on
those beliefs to their children, those beliefs will most likely be with the
children their whole lives. Consequently there is little change in party
size and belief.

It is important to note that in some cases, children do in fact believe

what their parents do from their own research and study, and that
taking parents beliefs and political opinions is not a bad thing.
Depending on the situation it could be good or bad.

Research Project

Logan Chenworth
Methodology

The method behind the survey was simple: have 30 young adults
answer 7 simple questions. The answers to the questions provided
adequate information to form a conclusion to the hypothesis.

As was mentioned, there were 7 questions on the survey to be

answered. There was more than one type of question, although not
many more. The following are the questions that were asked and why
they were chosen:
1. What is your current year in high school?
This was asked simply to identify the general age group what
was answering the survey.
2. What is your political party?
This was asked because it is always important to know when
discussing voting, as most people register to vote either
republican or democrat (the two prominent modern day parties)
3. Will you be voting in the next election?
It is important to know if students will actually vote, especially if
they are taking a survey based around voting. This also has a
correlation with parental influence.
4. Have you decided on a candidate, and if so, how so?
This was asked to discover how students chose the candidate
they support, as well as how much effort they had put towards a
serious decision.
5. What is your choice of candidate in the upcoming election?
This was an optional question, and was asked more for
interesting data than for use within the hypothesis.
6. Do you know who your parents are voting for?
This was a secondary question that ties into the main
hypothesis, and the reasons it was asked was to help discover
parental influence.
7. How much of an influence were your parents in your political
point of views? (Great influence, some influence, no influence)
This was asked to address the hypothesis stated above.

Research Project

Logan Chenworth
Results

The results for this survey were not what they were expected to
be, although there were some results that correlated with some group
speculation. Below is a chart to help better show the results.
Grade
Party
Voting
Candidate

Sr: 20
Rep: 14
Yes: 12
Decided: 6

Jr: 8
Dem: 12
No: 15
Undecided: 19

Soph: 2
Unsure/both: 3
Maybe: 2
Kind of: 3

choice
Current support

Trump: 30%

Undecided: 30%

Other: 10% for 3

Know Parents

Yes: 6

No: 13

candidates each
NA

Voting
Parental

Great influence:

No Influence: 15

Some Influence:

influence

Many of the results received were in fact surprising, especially

with regards to the hypothesis that was created. More than half of all
students surveyed said that they had no influence in political views
from their parents. A possible explanation for this is that many parents
arent themselves interested in politics, or perhaps the students offer
no interest in the topic of politics and it is generally overlooked. Both
explanations account for why students themselves wouldnt vote, as
well as not knowing who their respective parents would vote for.

While no pre-survey estimates were discussed about party

belonging, it is interesting to note that Utah is a dominantly republican
state, and in the survey there were almost as many democrats, with 3
undecided answers. This could be a margin of error as well. Lastly,
with regards to presidential support, it isnt surprising to see trump
leading with 30% just like with national polls. Although the reasons
given for Trump support cannot be accurately presented, it was

Research Project

Logan Chenworth

interesting to see why he was supported and the reasoning implied

behind it.

Conclusions and Suggestions for Further

Research
Overall, the findings from this survey were definitely surprising.
It was not expected that the majority of students did not have any
influence from their parents. This does in fact prove the hypothesis to
be more false than true, but it also shows that the majority of
politically active students to put in their own time to research
candidates and party values. Although not mentioned above, students
taking the survey were asked to provide reasons for which they chose
the candidate they had decided on. Here are the reasons given: news,
debates, friends, parents, personal research. It is important to note
that parents did make the list, which means some influence did in fact
come from them, as well as friends which was largely overlooked by
this group.

This survey also shows another surprising fact: almost half of

students surveyed were not even planning to vote in the upcoming
election, and it could be implied that many parents arent planning on
it either (inferred from the fact that many parents dont talk about their
voting decisions, meaning they might not have any).

To address future groups conducting similar kinds of research,

there are a few things that should be done to make a better survey
with better results. One thing that was done wrong with this survey
was that each individual typed his or her own questionnaire, BASED
ON but not directly from preliminary questions that should probably be
added. As a result, each individual had a slightly different survey, and
each survey had one or two questions that no one else had. This made
compiling the data very difficult, and probably inaccurate to some
degree. This could have been avoided if one master survey had been
made for all individuals within the group to use and hand out. Also

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Logan Chenworth

remember that the more people surveyed, the wider variety of

answers, but also the more accurate the answers are.