There were few substantial relationships between students' background or experiences and their views about young peoples' trust in government and politics. Another cause of young peoples' lack of participation in voting may be traced to the media and, in particular, its coverage of politics and elections. It is instructive to note, however, that frequency of reading a newspaper was substantially correlated with this response. To this open-end question, students offered a wide variety of answers. In sum, the young people surveyed are well informed about topical legal issues and supportive of norms about the importance of voting.
Most students work at jobs outside of school and volunteer their time to work in their communities.
Yet they are also distrustful of politics and government, and they are critical of conventional political candidates and mainstream media coverage of elections. Increasingly, young people are looking to the Internet for information, particularly about law and legal topics, while at the same time focusing their attention on youth issues as well as media, such as MTV, teen magazines, etc., that directly target and engage them. This survey of high school students points up, once again, the many challenges of civic participation for a new generation of Americans in a new era of technology. 1 Close Up Foundation, the nation's largest civic education organization, conducts a variety of educational programs for youth, adults, and senior citizens. The views expressed in this document have not been approved by the House of Delegates or the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association and, thus, should not be construed as representing the policy of the American Bar Association, the Fund for Justice and Education, or the Standing Committee on Public Education.