The Structure of Policy Thinking in Adolescence: A Research Note

Drawing on findings reported in an earlier issue of this Review, the present Note examines the extent to which nine forms of reasoning about the problem of poverty cohere into recognizable structures or cognitive styles among a small sample of eighth and twelfth graders. The degree of structured policy thinking among the respondents is lower than might have been predicted on the basis of cognitive developmental theory. Moreover, a respondent's amount of political interest, activity, motivation, and knowledge is a more accurate guide to his policy-thinking style than is his age. This finding also does not accord with cognitive developmental expectations. When these data are taken together with findings reported in the earlier article, we can conclude only that political involvement and individual maturation interact in complex ways in the development and structuring of policy thinking.