A Research Note on the Determinants of Protest Participation: Examining Socialization and Biographical Availability

A significant amount of research has been conducted on exploring the determinants of protest participation in the 1960s. There have been few quantitative studies, however, that explore the determinants of more recent protest participation. Utilizing multivariate analysis on data from the 1990 American Citizen Participation Study, this research note explores whether the determinants of more recent protest participation are comparable to the determinants of protest participation in the 1960s. Socialization and biographical availability are a primary focus of interest. Findings show that demographic predictors of more recent protest involvement differ from factors that predicted protest involvement in the 1960s. Parental socialization is not as influential today as it was in the 1960s while biographical availability continues to be an important determinant of protest participation.