Attributes, Challenges, and Participation of the Youth in the Protection of Electoral Integrity

Abstract

The youth are seen as the nation's future. They take risks and do not hesitate to speak up for what they think. This study determined the attributes of youth in Dumarao, Capiz, their challenges encountered, and level of participation in the protection of electoral integrity. It also ascertained if there is a significant difference in the challenges encountered and the level of participation when their profile such as sex, religion, household income, highest educational attainment, and community participated in were considered. Likewise, it looked into the influence of youth’s challenges encountered to their level of participation to gain insights towards an enhanced contribution to voter education. This study was descriptive and utilized a validated and reliability tested researcher-made survey questionnaire conducted to 388 youth of the 33 barangays in Dumarao. The data gathered were processed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences, employing tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, t-test, Analysis of Variance, and regression analysis. The results revealed that the youth of Dumarao were helpful, always seeking new skills to learn but lags in completing tasks on time. Their challenges encountered were on submission of registration requirements with the Commission on Election, attending election campaign, convincing their family to vote their chosen candidate, and finding their names in the voter’s list. These challenges were considered highly challenging but considered their participation as very high. Significant differences on challenges encountered were established on gender, estimated family income, and community activities participated in, while on level of participation, differences were noted in gender, highest educational attainment, and community participated in Challenges encountered were found to influence the youth’s level of participation.