Correlates of Political Participation

The purpose of this study is to find out the factors related to the political participation of teaching and non-teaching staff of Jose Rizal Memorial State University-Main Campus, Dapitan City. This study employed the descriptive-correlational method of research through a survey questionnaire administered among the 32 randomly selected respondents. The correlates of political participation explored were the profile of the respondents, political trust, political interest, political efficacy, media usage, and social networking site use. The study found that the respondents often have political trust in the selected government institutions, are generally somewhat interested in politics, agree to have political efficacy, and disagree to have political participation. In terms of media usage, they sometimes used them and rarely used social networking sites. In the context of this study, political participation is a choice and it is not selective of age, occupation, income, civil status, and location of residence. Regardless of one’s demographic profile, participation in politics is so common, especially in this democratic country where almost everyone has a say and is entitled to express his/her wanted reforms as long as within the ambit of his/her rights. Being politically trustful and interested has moderate tendency of dictating one’s political participation. Political efficacy can go with the extent of political participation. Likewise, exposure to SNS for obtaining politically-based information can drive along with political participation.