The data collection includes a survey covering aspects of political behaviour among representative samples of cohorts of young people aged 16 to 31 who came of age in the context of and since the lowering of the voting age in Scotland. Additionally, the survey was also conducted among a comparative sample representative of adults aged 32 and older in Scotland. The survey was designed to answer research questions on young people's voting behaviour seven years after the introduction of Votes at 16 in Scotland to assess the longer-term outcomes of the lowering of the voting age to 16 in Scotland. It covered questions on political engagement (both conventional and less conventional), political attitudes (including views on institutions and self-efficacy), family background, experiences with civic education and personal circumstances.This project investigated the outcomes of the enfranchisement of 16- and 17-year-olds on young people’s political behaviour in Scotland seven years after the change of the franchise. Scotland is one of a limited number of places in the world where the voting age has been lowered to 16. When this was done initially for the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, a rich amount of high-quality data was collected both before and after the first vote involving 16- and 17-year-olds, and this data suggested a number of changes to young people’s political behaviour following the change of the franchise. In order to gain insights into the longevity of some of these changes in young people’s political behaviour in Scotland, this study was designed to measure the extent to which changes to young people’s political behaviour in Scotland were maintained in different cohorts seven years after the first vote that saw 16- and 17-year-olds included in the franchise. The study surveyed representative samples of cohorts of 16- to 31-year-olds in Scotland. Its objectives were to examine (1) the extent to which greater levels of political engagement found in young people in 2014 and 2015, and greater equality of engagement between young people from different socio-economic backgrounds had been maintained, and (2) which factors impacted young people’s experiences of elections and political socialisation when they are enfranchised at different ages (16 vs. 18 or later).

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