Examining the Empirical Model of Malaysian Youth Motivation in Political Participation: The Three-Culture Perspective (S/O 14182)

• Main Authors: Halim, Haslina, Mohamad, Bahtiar, Dalib, Syarizan, Abdu, Shamsu Dauda
• Format: Monograph
• Language: English
• Published: UUM 2021
• Subjects: JC Political theory
• Online Access: https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/31517/1/14182.pdf; https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/31517/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

Studies have suggested that the traditional form of political participation, especially among youth has been declining in developed and developing countries, like Malaysia. If the trend continues, especially when it involves participation of the younger generation, it may likely lead to an uncertain future of democracy. Taking this into consideration, the present research hopes to further investigate youth behavior in political participation. Specifically, this study aims towards constructing a structural model of the associations between social media usage, perceived information quality, political interest and political knowledge with political participation among Malaysian youth. The study employs a mixed-method approach, with the quantitative method being a dominant component. The first part of the study involves semi-structured interviews with 10 focus groups, involving youth associations comprising of the Malay, Chinese and Indian groups. The themes generated from the interviews lead to the instrument development used for the second part of the data collection, which is the survey. The survey involved 525 Malaysian youth aged between 18 and 35 years. The results demonstrate that there is a significant relationship between perceived information quality, political interest, political knowledge and political participation. Furthermore, the results also indicate that political knowledge mediates the relationship between perceived information quality, political interest and political participation. Findings from the study validate the research propositions on the factors contributing towards Malaysian youth political participation. Besides furthering the literature on youth involvement in politics, the study also reveals the implications of social media usage and present an in-depth knowledge on Malaysian youth motivational behavior in political participation. The study also highlights on racial inclination of Malaysian youth political participation which could help the government to develop appropriate policies, programs and trainings based on the needs of the three main races of Malaysian youth and elevate the nation towards achieving TN50 and Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0)