Leaving the Nest and the Social Act of Voting: Turnout among First-Time Voters

Recent studies have indicated that, contrary to common belief, the relationship between age and turnout among the youngest eligible individuals is not monotonically positive, but rather strongly negative - at least for the first few years of adulthood. With a unique dataset from government records for more than 145,000 young adults, we offer a possible explanation for this intriguing pattern - changing social influences as the young adult leaves the family nest. Parental turnout influences the young adults' turnout, and young adults living at home vote more than those who have moved out on their own. When young adults leave home, the influence of their parents' strong voting habits decreases while the weaker voting patterns among their peers have a greater impact. This partly explains the surprising negative relationship between age and turnout and indicates that while political socialization indeed matters, part of the parental influence on young adults stems from voting being a social act.