Association of online political participation with social media usage, perceived information quality, political interest and political knowledge among Malaysian youth: Structural equation model analysis

Although, many researches have described the younger generation to be diverse and active in politics of today, this segment of the population has not been well-acknowledged in the decision-making of politics. This involvement in politics is crucial as it helps in building confidence and skill acquirement that are relevant such as teamwork and effective communication. Hence, the study aims to further investigate their participation in politics and to construct a structural model that displays the associations between perceived information quality (PIQ), online political participation (OPP), political interest (PI), political knowledge (PK) and social media usage (SMU) among Malaysia’s youth. In doing this, the study identified various youth groups in Malaysia and from there, 476 respondents aged between 18 and 35 years responded to the online questionnaire survey. The path analysis of the structural model indicates positive significant statistical relationship between PIQ, PI with PK and OPP. The SMU also reveals a significant relation with PK but indicates no association with OPP. Nevertheless, PK has a significant relationship with OPP. This explains the importance of PIQ, PI and PK among the youth and the findings could enhance their OPP, especially in utilizing Facebook as tool for political involvement.