Family convergence in a polarised environment: the political socialisation of youth in Poland

Contemporary European societies are characterised by societal polarisation, which relates also to antagonistic generational relationships. Yet even as views between generations drift apart, they may converge within certain families. This paper explores family convergence and divergence on political and social attitudes in the polarised Polish context. We draw on an original online survey conducted in 2023 with 2,117 respondents aged 16 to 34 years. The survey assessed how young Poles' social values and attitudes towards political parties relate to those of their parents. One-third of all families were found to converge in their party support and about a quarter converged on social values. Convergence on social values is more frequent when both parents have similar political views, within religious families, and when children were exposed to politically engaged parents during adolescence. Conversely, we find that shared parental partisanship may give rise to a backlash and correlates with lower family convergence on partisanship. Moreover, political disengagement and intergenerational conflict correlate with weaker convergence on social values and political preferences. Convergence is also higher between daughters and mothers, and sons and fathers. While supporters of the national-conservative PiS tend to converge with their parents, divergence prevails among supporters of the far-right Konfederacja.