Research design

The National Survey
We conducted a national online survey of 1,025 attainers - 18 year olds for whom the UK General Election of 2010 offered the first opportunity to vote in any contest (including any previous local or European elections). The representative national sample of young people from across England, Scotland and Wales was drawn from an online access panel.*

Prior to analysis, the data were weighted to accurately reflect population estimates of gender, ethnicity and region. Data collection took place from 20 April to 4 May 2011, thereby ensuring that respondents had not yet had the opportunity to vote in the Alternative Vote referendum of 5 May 2011.

The survey was designed to measure attitudes towards politics, politicians and democracy, and behaviours including participation in a variety of formal and informal political activities. By collecting data on a variety of socio-demographic characteristics we were able to analyse these attitudes and behaviours against young people from a variety of different groups.

Focus Groups
In addition to the online survey, we conducted fourteen online focus groups during November 2011, with 86 attainers who did not vote at the 2010 General Election. The purpose of these focus groups was to examine what influenced the participants' decisions to self-exclude from the election, and more generally to uncover some of the deeper perceptions and meanings that the young people in the survey attached to politics and political activity.

Through this research, we were able to gain a deeper insight into young people's views and opinions than was possible through the survey alone. For example, while some survey respondents indicated that they strongly disagreed with the statement that "The Government generally treats young people fairly", the reasons behind such feelings could only be fully explored within the more detailed discussions of the focus groups. In this respect the focus groups provided an opportunity to contextualise the data gained from the survey, and supplement that data in very important ways.

The focus groups also allowed the participants to express themselves in their own words-this is important, given that the young people in our focus groups were encouraged to communicate to us their meaning of 'politics', rather than respond to conventional definitions.

*This online access panel was co-ordinated by Ipsos-MORI. We would like to thank Paul Carroll and Sarah Pope at Ipsos-MORI, both for their preparation of the data and for their general contribution to the project.