Abstract
The importance of political knowledge for both actual and expected future electoral participation has been widely documented in the research literature. Political attentiveness refers to the extent to which an individual pays attention to sources of political information such as the news and current affairs, documentaries on political events on the radio, television or Internet, political debates and discussions, etc. Political interest refers to the interest that an individual has in politics and political issues. Interest has sometimes been conceptualised as the converse of political apathy. Collective efficacy in youth has been less extensively studied than either internal or external efficacy. A further construct that is closely related to external political efficacy is the perceived effectiveness of different participatory actions. Youth is a critical period in human development for exploring and developing identities and for thinking about one’s own position and possible future roles within society.