In the first 18 months, IP-PAD has made good progress toward its objectives. A major milestone is the successful implementation of Wave 1 of the cross-national panel survey, covering more than 5,000 adolescents across five European countries. The study combines political, cognitive, affective, and social variables in a single design. Preparations for Wave 2 are underway, with fieldwork expected to take place in May 2025.
In parallel, Doctoral Candidates (DCs) have conducted surveys, experiments, laboratory-based studies aligned with their particular research focus. For example, their studies investigate how adolescents process political information, how ideological attitudes are shaped by psychological traits, and how emotions affect political reasoning. Preliminary results suggest for example that traits like impulse control and emotion regulation predict openness to democratic norms, and that affective polarization already emerges in early adolescence.
Several validated instruments have been developed — including new measures of political interest and affective polarization — and are currently applied across multiple settings. Studies are pre-registered, reproducible, and already resulting in pre-prints and peer-reviewed publications. DCs work in interdisciplinary teams, linking political science, developmental psychology, and neuroscience in their research questions, methods, and interpretations.
Across the board, the project exemplifies how social sciences can be integrated with life sciences to produce new insights into the emotional, cognitive and social dimensions of democratic development.
