Stressful Life Events and African American Political Participation

Peterson, Steven A.; Gabbidon, Shaun L.

doi:10.1177/0021934705283885

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…13 The relationship between stressful life events and political attitudes and activism has been studied with mixed results in the United States. 14,15,16,17 Self-assessment of health was related to voting participation among elderly white Americans, 18 urban seniors, 19,20 and seniors across European countries. 21 But a study of older adults in two regions in Finland and Sweden could not establish that health had a strong effect on three modes of political participation (voting, influencing others, and protesting) when controlling for other factors related to the so-called civic voluntarism model.…”

Section: Health and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In sickness and in health

Söderlund

Rapeli

2015

Polit. life sci.

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In search of a better understanding of inequalities in citizen political engagement, scholars have begun addressing the relationship between personal health and patterns of political behavior. This study focuses on the impact of personal health on various forms of political participation. The analysis contributes to existing knowledge by examining a number of different participation forms beyond just voting. Using European Social Survey data from 2012/2013 for Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden (N = 8,060), self-reported turnout and six alternative modes of political engagement were modeled as dependent variables. Contrary to expectations, poor health did not depress participation across all forms. As assumed by the increased activism hypothesis, all else equal, people with poor health were more active than their healthy counterparts in direct contacts with power holders and demonstrations. The results reveal a "reversed health gap" by showing that people with health problems are in fact more politically active than what previous research, which has focused on voting, has suggested. Although the magnitude of the gap should not be overdramatized, our results stress the importance of distinguishing between different forms of participation when analyzing the impact of health on political engagement. Nevertheless, the findings show that poor health can stimulate people into political engagement rather than depressing activity. This finding holds when the effects of several sociodemographic and motivational factors are controlled for.

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Section: Health and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

In sickness and in health

Söderlund

Rapeli

2015

Polit. life sci.

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“…However, many of these studies find a wide variation in the size of the effects of these stressful occurrences among different subgroups, showing a large dampening effect on turnout in some subgroups and little to no effect in others (Pacheco & Plutzer, ). A few studies have even found that, among some subgroups, poor health and traumatic life events lead to greater political participation (Peterson & Gabbidon, ; Peterson & Somit, ). Political scientists have long contended that people's perceptions of their problems impact political behavior depending on the degree to which those problems can be connected to the political realm, concepts operationalized in Brody and Sniderman () as the locus of concern and in Sniderman and Brody () as the focus of expectations .…”

Section: The Cost Of Votingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This assumption ignores the possibilities of the conditional effects of stress on political participation. While the bulk of the literature has shown that stress-inducing life events lower the political participation of the general population (Hobbs et al, 2013;Pacheco & Plutzer, 2008;Sandell & Plutzer, 2005), some studies involving certain subpopulations have shown the opposite, namely that stress in life has no effect or even increases political participation (Pacheco & Plutzer, 2007;Peterson, 1987;Peterson & Gabbidon, 2007;Peterson & Somit, 1994). Likewise, just as there is some limited evidence that the adaptive family and community structures of racial minorities provide a buffer to some of the political effects of life stressors (Pacheco & Plutzer, 2007), research in psychology has shown that there are important differences in how people handle and cope with stress (Bandura, 1977;Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).…”

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The Differential Effects of Stress on Voter Turnout

Hassell

Settle

2016

Political Psychology

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While everyone deals with stressful situations on a daily basis, individuals have different behavioral reactions to that stress. We argue that life stress also affects individuals' political behavior, but this effect is contingent on their past political involvement. While individuals familiar with and engaged in the political process are unaffected when confronted with stress in life, individuals who are not routinely involved in the electoral process are more likely to disengage from politics. To test the differential effects of stress on the likelihood of political involvement, we fielded two experiments, one preceding the U.S. presidential election of 2012 and the second preceding the 2013 municipal election in a small Midwestern American town. We find that when triggered to consider life stressors unrelated to politics, individuals without a history of past participation in politics are less likely to vote while individuals who are habitual voters are unaffected.

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Stressful Life Events and African American Political Participation

Cited by 2 publications

References 21 publications

In sickness and in health

In sickness and in health

The Differential Effects of Stress on Voter Turnout

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