The present study finds that there is very little direct effect on activism by social background, indicating that past studies of student political activism have overemphasized the influence of social background factors. Social background explains more of the variation in political attitudes and beliefs than it explains in political activism. This is not to say the social background is not important or influential in the development of an activist political commitment—merely that no univalent rules exist which link social background characteristics with an individual' involvement in politics. There are too many intervening factors, such as political attitudes and beliefs (and others not accounted for here) which influence individuals in numberless ways.