Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:32:35.191Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Health and Voting in Young Adulthood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

Christopher Ojeda  and
Julianna Pacheco
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Do changes in health lead to changes in the probability of voting? Using two longitudinal datasets, this article looks at the impact of three measures of health – physical health, mental health and overall well-being – on voting trajectories in young adulthood. The results show that self-rated health is associated with a lower probability of voting in one’s first election, depression is related to a decline in turnout over time and physical limitations are unrelated to voting. Some familial resources from childhood are also found to condition when the health–participation effect manifests.

Keywords

votingturnouthealthdepressiondevelopment
Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 1163 - 1186
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, Stanford University (email: [email protected]); Department of Political Science, University of Iowa (email: [email protected]). Data replication sets are available in Harvard Dataverse at: doi:10.7910/DVN/ZTJWUF and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0007123417000151.

References

Adler, Nancy E., and Newman, Katherine. 2002. Socioeconomic Disparities in Health: Pathways and Policies. Health Affairs 21 (2):60–76.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H., Montgomery, Jacob M., and Wood, Wendy. 2010. Turnout as Habit. Political Behavior 33 (4):535–563.Google Scholar
Alvarez, Michael R., Levin, Ines, and Sinclair, J. Andrew. 2012. Making Voting Easier: Convenience Voting in the 2008 Presidential Election. Political Research Quarterly 65:248–262.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. 2000. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.Google Scholar
Benfer, Emily A. 2009. The ADA Amendments Act: An Overview of Recent Changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Washington, DC: American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.Google Scholar
Berger, Michele Tracy. 2004. Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bhatti, Yosef, and Hansen, Kasper M.. 2012. Retiring from Voting: Turnout among Senior Voters. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties 22 (4):479–500.Google Scholar
Bhatti, Yosef, Hansen, Kasper M., and Wass, Hanna. 2012. The Relationship Between Age and Turnout: A Roller-Coaster Ride. Electoral Studies 31:588–593.Google Scholar
Bjorner, Jakob B., Fayers, P. M., and Idler, E. L.. 2005. Self-rated Health. in Assessing Quality of Life, edited by Peter Fayers and Ron Hays, 309–323. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Case, Anne, Fertig, Angela, and Paxson, Christina. 2005. The Lasting Impact of Childhood Health and Circumstance. Journal of Health Economics 24:365–389.Google Scholar
Clarke, Philippa J, Ailshire, Jennifer A., Nieuwenhuijens, Els R., and de Kleijn-de Vrankrijker, Marijke W.. 2011. Participation Among Adults With Disability: The Role of the Urban Environment. Social Science & Medicine 72:1674–1684.Google Scholar
Coppock, Alexander, and Green, Donald P.. 2015. Is Voting Habit Forming? New Evidence from Experiments and Regression Discontinuities. American Journal of Political Science 60 (4):1044–1062.Google Scholar
Cowell, Alexander J. 2005. The Relationship Between Education and Health Behavior: Some Empirical Evidence. Health Economics 15 (2):125–146.Google Scholar
Currie, Janet, Stabile, Mark, Manivong, Phongsack, and Roos, Leslie L.. 2009. Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes. Journal of Human Resources 45 (3):517–548.Google Scholar
Denny, Kevin J., and Doyle, Orla M.. 2007. …‘Take Up Thy Bed, and Vote’ Measuring the Relationship Between Voting Behaviour and Indicators of Health. European Journal of Public Health 17 (4):400–401.Google Scholar
Ferraro, Keneth F. 2006. Health and Aging. Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences 6:238–256.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Green, Donald P., and Shachar, Ron. 2003. Voting May be Habit Forming: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment. American Journal of Political Science 47 (3):540–550.Google Scholar
Gigendel, Elisabeth, Wass, Hanna, and Valaste, Maria. 2016. Political Socialization and Voting: The Parent–Child Link in Turnout. Political Research Quarterly 60 (2):373–383.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2009. Preference Gaps and Inequality in Representation. PS: Political Science & Politics 42 (2):335–341.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin, and Page, Benjamin I.. 2014. Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest groups, and Average Citizens. Perspectives on Politics 12 (3):564–581.Google Scholar
Goodman, Alissa, Joyce, Robert, and Smith, James P.. 2011. The Long Shadow Cast by Childhood Physical and Mental Problems on Adult Life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 108 (15):6032–6037.Google Scholar
Gollust, Sarah E., and Wendy, Rahn. 2015. The Bodies Politic: Chronic Health Conditions and Voter Turnout in the 2008 Election. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 40 (6):1115–1155.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Paul E., Kessler, Ronald C., Birnbaum, Howard G., Leong, Stephanie A., Lowe, Sarah W., Berglund, Patricia A., and Corey-Lisle, Patricia K.. 2003. The Economic Burden of Depression in the United States: How Did It Change between 1990 and 2000? Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 64 (12):1465–1475.Google Scholar
Griffin, John D., and Newman, B.. 2005. Are Voters Better Represented? Journal of Politics 67 (4):1206–1227.Google Scholar
Groot, Wim. 2000. Adaptation and Scale of Reference Bias in Self-Assessments of Quality of Life. Journal of Health Economics 19 (3):403–420.Google Scholar
Harrington, Richard, Fudge, Hazel, Rutter, Michael, Pickles, Andrew, and Hill, Jonathan. 1990. Adult Outcomes of Childhood and Adolescent Depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 47:465–473.Google Scholar
Hobbes, William, Christakis, Nicholas, and Fowler, James. 2014. Widowhood Effects in Voter Participation. American Journal of Political Science 58 (1):1–16.Google Scholar
Idler, Ellen L., and Benyamini, Yael. 1997. Self-Rated Health and Mortality: A Review of Twenty-Seven Community Studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 38:21–37.Google Scholar
Jylhä, Marja. 2009. What is Self-Rated Health and Why does it Predict Mortality? Towards a Unified Conceptual Model. Social Science & Medicine 69:307–316.Google Scholar
King, Samantha. 2008. Pink Ribbons Inc: Breast Cancer Activism and the Politics of Philanthropy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Lantz, Paula M., House, James S., Lepkowski, James M., Williams, David R., Mero, Richard P., and Chen, Jieming. 1998. Socioeconomic Factors, Health Behaviors, and Mortality: Results from a Nationally Representative Prospective Study of US Adults. Journal of American Medical Association 279:1703–1708.Google Scholar
Lavretsky, Helen, and Kumar, Anand. 2002. Clinically Significant Non-Major Depression: Old Concepts, New Insights. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 10 (3):239–255.Google Scholar
Marmot, Michael. 2002. The Influence of Income on Health: Views of an Epidemiologist. Health Affairs 21 (2):31–46.Google Scholar
Mattila, Mikko, Soderlund, Peter, Wass, Hanna, and Rapeli, Lauri. 2013. Healthy Voting: The Effect of Self-Reported Health on Turnout in 30 Countries. Electoral Studies 32 (4):886–891.Google Scholar
Milbrath, Lester. 1965. Political Participation: How and Why Do People Get Involved in Politics? Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
National Research Council. 2000. From Neurons to Neighborhoods. The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Ojeda, Christopher. 2015. Depression and Political Participation. Social Science Quarterly 96 (5):1126–1243.Google Scholar
Ojeda, Christopher. 2017. “Replication Data for: Health and Voting in Young Adulthood”, doi: 10.7910/DVN/ZTJWUF, Harvard Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:65FxJZJPHdskSxLcvD+Q8w==.Google Scholar
Pacheco, Julianna. 2014. A Conditional Theory of Self-Interest and Symbolic Politics. Presented at the Annual Meetings of the Southern Political Science Association, New Orleans, LA, 3–7 January.Google Scholar
Pacheco, Julianna Sandell, and Plutzer, Eric. 2008. Political Participation and Cumulative Disadvantage: The Impact of Economic and Social Hardship on Young Citizens. Journal of Social Issues 64 (3):571–593.Google Scholar
Pacheco, Julianna Sandell, and Fletcher, Jason. 2015. Incorporating Health into Studies of Political Behavior: Evidence for Turnout and Partisanship. Political Research Quarterly 68 (1):104–116.Google Scholar
Palloni, Alberto. 2005. Reproducing Inequalities: Luck, Wallets, and the Enduring Effects of Childhood Health. Demography 43:587–615.Google Scholar
Plutzer, Eric. 2002. Becoming a Habitual Voter: Inertia, Resources, and Growth in Young Adulthood. American Political Science Review 96 (1):41–56.Google Scholar
Robert, Stephanie A, and Booske, BC. 2011. US Opinions on Health Determinants and Social Policy as Health Policy. American Journal of Public Health 101:1655–1663.Google Scholar
Rosenstone, Steve J. 1982. Economic Adversity and Voter Turnout. American Journal of Political Science 26 (1):25–46.Google Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., and John Mark, Hansen. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Savage, Mike. 2016. Are We Seeing a New ‘Inequality Paradigm’ in Social Science? The London School of Economics British Politics and Policy Blog, 2 June.Google Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Verba, Sidney, and Brady, Henry E.. 2012. The Unheavenly Chorus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schur, Lisa, and Kruse, Douglas. 2000. What Determines Voter Turnout? Lessons from Citizens with Disabilities. Social Science Quarterly 81 (2):571–587.Google Scholar
Schur, Lisa, Shields, Todd, Kruse, Douglas, and Schriner, Kay. 2002. Enabling Democracy: Disability and Voter Turnout. Political Research Quarterly 55 (1):167–190.Google Scholar
Schur, Lisa, Shields, Todd, and Schriner, Kay. 2005. Generational Cohorts, Group Membership, and Political Participation by People with Disabilities. Political Research Quarterly 58 (3):487–496.Google Scholar
Schriner, Kay, Ochs, Lisa A., and Shields, Todd G.. 1997. The Last Suffrage Movement: Voting Rights for Persons with Cognitive and Emotional Disabilities. Publius 27 (3):75–96.Google Scholar
Simon, J. G., De Boer, J. B., Joung, I. M. A., Bosma, H., and Mackenbach, J. P.. 2005. How is Your Health in General? A Qualitative Study on Self-assessed Health. European Journal of Public Health 15 (2):200–208.Google Scholar
Singer, Judith D., and Willett, John B.. 2003. Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smets, Kaat, and van Ham, Carolien. 2013. The Embarrassment of Riches? A Meta-Analysis of Individual-Level Research on Voter Turnout. Electoral Studies 32:344–359.Google Scholar
Soderlund, Peter, and Rapeli, Lauri. 2015. In Sickness and in Health: Personal Health and Political Participation in the Nordic Countries. Politics and the Life Sciences 34 (1):28–43.Google Scholar
Soss, Joe, and Jacobs, Lawrence R.. 2009. The Place of Inequality: Non-Participation in the American Polity. Political Science Quarterly 124 (1):95–125.Google Scholar
Sund, Reijo, Lahtinen, Hannu, Wass, Hanna, Mattila, Mikko, and Martikainen, Pekka. 2016. How Voter Turnout Varies between Chronic Conditions? A Population-Based Register Study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 71 (5):475–479.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Nie, Norman H., and Kim, Jae-on. 1978. Participation and Political Equality: A Seven-Nation Comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Simon J. 1999. Is Anybody There? Critical Realism, Chronic Illness, and the Disability Debate. Sociology of Health & Illness 21 (6):797–819.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Ojeda and Pacheco supplementary material

Appendices

Download Ojeda and Pacheco supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 532.4 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Ojeda and Pacheco Dataset

Datasets

http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ZTJWUF
Link