This project contributes to current research by expanding our knowledge on pro-European orientations and their determinants in a longitudinal perspective. It will do so by conducting the first panel survey study with a research design fully designed to identify the psychological and social mechanisms that explain the relationship between formal education and pro-European orientations. Since “social mechanisms and mechanism-based explanations have received considerable attention in the social sciences” (Hedström and Ylikoski 2010: 50), our study has the potential to generate theoretical or methodological contributions to the larger, cross-field area of analytical sociology and Europeanization studies. YOEDER will have five main projects:

Objective 1: Determine if young adults hold stable or longitudinally variable orientations towards Europe and European integration

Objective 2: Determine if the shifts in attitudes and identities of young people display clear trends or are trendless.

Objective 3: Establish the core factors shaping pro-European attitudes among young adults

Objective 4: Establish the mechanisms that link increases in formal education and pro-European orientations among young adults

Objective 5: Establish the mechanisms that link having completed a higher-education program and pro-European orientations among young adults