Young have bleak view of politics

Parliament does not strike chords with the young

Teenagers in England have little trust or interest in politics, says an international survey of attitudes towards citizenship.

The responses of 90,000 14-year-old pupils in 28 countries makes bleak reading for politicians, with evidence of widespread hostility towards the parliamentary process.

Civic attitudes of English pupils

Reject party politics

Distrust government

'Moderately' trust courts and police

Trust television news

Distrust newspapers

Support women's rights

Less nationalistic

Less positive towards immigration

(All compared with international averages)

Four out of five teenagers in England did not expect to become involved in political activity, said the survey from the National Foundation for Educational Research.

This level of disenchantment was worse than average for this international survey, which included a range of western and eastern European countries, plus the United States, Australia and Chile.

Only one in four pupils in England would firmly agree with the statement: "I am interested in politics".

Believing the news

And respect for politicians was at a low ebb, with political parties trusted less than organisations such as the police, the courts, the armed forces or the United Nations.

Television news is trusted in England, but in Italy they are more likely to believe newspapers

The Westminster government was even less trusted than the European Union.

Less than a third of youngsters trusted the government, with an even lower figure trusting political parties.

Among other countries, Slovenia and Russia had the lowest levels of trust in their national governments and Danish and Swiss pupils had the highest.

There was also mixed news for those reporting on politics.

Television news coverage is trusted much more in England than in most other countries in the survey - and it is the most prominent source of political information for young people.

English pupils were not interested in party politics

Television is trusted "most of the time" by 61% of the students and radio by 56%, compared with only 26% for newspapers (the lowest trust rating of any country).

In contrast, among Italian students, newspaper coverage is more trusted than television or radio.

Scepticism

But despite the scepticism about party politics, the survey claimed that youngsters were more sympathetic to less formal politics.

Young people were more open to debating social issues or to the idea of supporting campaigns which were not overtly party political.

Switzerland and Denmark had the most trust in government

There were also signs that where schools introduced concepts of citizenship there was likely to be a greater interest in participating in democracy.

And researchers concluded that there was an "untapped potential" in young people's readiness to accept to the idea of civic involvement.

The survey also examined attitudes towards nationality - and found that English pupils were less overtly nationalistic than the international average, based on issues such as the importance of a national flag.

There was also a significant difference in attitudes towards women's rights, with English, Danish, Australian and Norwegian pupils more supportive than the average.

But in attitudes towards immigrants, England was one of a group of 10 European countries with a less positive attitude than average.

Citizenship has been introduced to the curriculum in schools in England - and the survey, claimed as the largest ever of its kind, will track the impact of the subject on young people's attitudes over the next eight years.