Developing contemporary factors of political participation

Drawing from research in communication and political science, this study identifies five factors of political participation that address both traditional and more contemporary forms of political engagement. To begin, a questionnaire was developed and tested with respondents from two nationwide surveys who answered questions about their political participation (N = 476 in Sample 1, N = 490 in Sample 2). Next, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with responses from the first sample, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted with responses from the second. Both datasets yielded five distinct factors of political participation: (1) traditional political participation, (2) interpersonal political talk, (3) voting, (4) social media engagement, and (5) online information seeking. Testing convergent and discriminant validity, each factor of political participation was positively related to political efficacy and political interest. Only traditional political participation was (negatively) related to political cynicism. These results suggest that forms of political participation have become more diversified and individualized following the development of communication technologies. Therefore, each of these five factors of political participation is recommended for use in future research.