Poor mental health does not always reduce political participation: Wrong assumption, wrong samples, or wrong measures?

Bernardi, L ORCID: 0000-0001-5875-9990, Mattila, M ORCID: 0000-0002-2289-8486, Papageorgiou, A ORCID: 0000-0002-2464-9467 and Rapeli, L ORCID: 0000-0003-0248-2763 (2025) Poor mental health does not always reduce political participation: Wrong assumption, wrong samples, or wrong measures? Politics and the Life Sciences, 44 (2). pp. 247-259. ISSN 0730-9384, 1471-5457

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Abstract

Mental health, like physical health, represents an important resource for participating in politics. We bring new insights from six surveys from five different countries (Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States) that combine diversified questions on mental health problems and political participation. Unlike previous research on depression, we find only limited evidence for the Resource Hypothesis that mental health problems reduce political participation, except in the case of voting and only in some samples. Instead, we find mixed evidence that mental health problems and their comorbidity (experiencing multiple problems) are associated with increased political participation. Our study leads us to more questions than answers: are the measures available in public opinion surveys appropriate for the task? Do general survey samples adequately capture people with mental disorders? And is the assumption that poor mental health reduces political participation wrong?

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Humans, Mental Health, Mental Disorders, Politics, Public Opinion, Adult, Middle Aged, United States, Female, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	04 Jun 2025 14:26
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2026 18:04
DOI:	10.1017/pls.2025.10004
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3193076
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