本文使用第三波亞洲民主動態調查的資料，觀察東亞11個國家不同年齡層民眾的政治參與情形。在傳統的政治參與類型方面，包括投票、競選參與、聯繫政府官員以及參與地方公共事務等傳統類型的政治參與，多為體制內的參與，加上新的世代比較不偏好這種參與模式，所以年輕群體的參與相較壯年群體為少。在非傳統的政治參與類型方面，衝突性比較低的陳情與參與連署活動，壯年與老年群體的參與相較年輕群體為多，至於衝突性比較高的抗議與因政治目的使用武力，年輕群體的參與較多。進一步，我們討論年輕人參與衝突性高抗爭活動的影響因素，除了一般討論的後物質主義價值因素之外，文中分析不同年齡層的就業困境以及對這類活動的接受程度的重要性。實證發現，年齡對政治活動參與的影響，要視是否失業而定。在抗議活動參與方面，在非失業的群體中，老年人的參與並沒有較年輕人與壯年人少，但是在失業群體中，老年人的參與明顯較少；在使用武力的參與方面，在非失業群體中年齡也不顯著，在失業群體中年輕人比較會選擇武力活動；至於衝突性低的政治參與中，失業與否並不會影響年齡與參與間的關係。

We study political participation of different age groups in 11 East Asian countries by using the third wave Asian Barometer survey. The young voters tend to participate less in the conventional form of activities, such as voting, campaign activities, contacting government officials, and communal activities. The non-conventional form of activities can be divided into two groups. Activities such as raising an issue or signing petition are relatively peaceful, while activities like demonstration, march, and use of force are more confrontational, generating a hurdle to participation, especially for the adult and elder population. That is why the adult and elders participate more in petition, while the young cohort tends to participate more in the confrontational activities. In addition, we find that the impact of age on the confrontational political participation depends on the employment status of the voters. First, there is no participatory gap between age groups in the non-unemployed respondents. Second, among the unemployed voters, the youth and adult are more likely to participate in protest than the elder and the youth are more likely to adopt the use of force than the other age groups.