Political Self-efficacy Research Articles

«Подлинный народ» против «коррумпированной элиты»: политический популизм как реакция на ощущение беспомощности в политической сфере

Political populism i.e., the idea that society is divided into two homogeneous and opposing groups — the “pure people” and the “corrupt elite”, is noticeably reflected in political behavior. Psychological factors, among others, significantly contribute to the growth of political populism. However, in their research most authors focus on individual psychological characteristics, leaving out the socio-psychological characteristics. The article attempts to analyze the connection between one of these socio-psychological characteristics, namely external political self-efficacy, and populist attitudes. This study is grounded in the self-determination theory. For the empirical data, the author conducted an online survey on the Yandex Toloka platform among Russian respondents in the spring and fall of 2022. The study showed that socio-psychological characteristics play an important role in the assimilation of populist ideas. In particular, it was found, that external political self-efficacy is negatively correlated with populist attitudes. This means that people who believe that they have sufficient opportunities to participate in political life are less predisposed to accept a populist picture of the world.

Configurations of democracy—empirical and methodological insights from a comparison of Singapore, Ghana, and Ireland

This article presents and proofs an alternative concept of democracy that seeks to overcome the limitations of rigid universalist, liberal-proceduralist conceptions by emphasizing the fundamental principles of democracy rather than combining them with culturally individualistic features. The approach presented here focuses on the fundamental principles of democracy. Democratic configurations assume that citizens’ political self-efficacy of the people is a potential basic principle behind any institutionalization of democratic order. Therefore, this article refers on a discussion of the theoretical implementation of self-efficacy in the three models of democracy: liberalism, republicanism and communitarianism. Ultimately, every political system must be studied by whether the established institutions serve this basic principle. The article illustrates the proposed approach through case studies of Singapore, Ghana, and Ireland. The empirical examples show how different institutional settings and their adjustments strengthen and hinder political self-efficacy. Therefore, this new bottom-up-approach of studying configurations of democracy may help to get better insights on the democraticness of political systems and other institutional settings.

Understanding Gender Inequality in Political Self-Efficacy in Early Adolescents: Different Measures, Different Gender Gaps

Research has shown a persistent gender gap in political self-efficacy across most Western countries. Nevertheless, the regularity in these findings masks the diversity in the measures used to capture this construct and little reflection has been undertaken on the extent that changing the measures has on the size and the direction of the gender gap. This article tests on students aged 14 in 38 countries using the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, the extent that self-efficacy in the domain of politics is a unidimensional measure and if different gender gaps can be found between self-efficacy measures capturing partisan politics compared to broader citizenship self-efficacy measures. The findings show that it is only partisan political self-efficacy measures where there is a significant gender gap and where girls are disadvantaged. This is the case for 37 out of 38 countries and robust when controlling for different levels of political knowledge. When a broader measure of citizenship self-efficacy is used, there are much less gender differences, and when there is a significant difference, girls outperform boys in 14 out of 38 countries. These contrary findings are similar in the same study when comparing the measures on interest in politics and interest in social issues.

The gender gap in political efficacy: the accelerating effect of classroom discussions

Abstract The gender gap in political self-efficacy originates early in life and is among the most persistent inequalities in political attitudes across Western democracies. The difficulties in accessing data for early adolescents have resulted in limited research available to provide an understanding on how gender differences in political self-efficacy are developed. In this article we provide unique evidence on the development of the efficacy gap during secondary school. The Citizenship Educational Longitudinal study data from England on young people between the ages 11–16 shows that boys increase their levels of political self-efficacy significantly during this period while girls do not. Secondly, we show that teaching methods that are expected to enable the development of internal political efficacy, such as classroom discussions, are accelerating the gender gap in perceived abilities to get engaged in politics. Our findings show that, despite having the same access to classroom discussions in schools, this experience has a positive effect in the development of political efficacy for boys but, if anything, a negative effect for girls. Furthermore, even a small number of boys in the classroom discussions appears detrimental to girls’ political efficacy.

Trans Rights and Safety, Political Self-efficacy, and Well-Being

Abstract Introduction This mixed-methods study contributes to a growing body of research on trans political engagement by examining the interaction between trans political self-efficacy, political fatigue, and mental health. A total of 141 trans individuals completed an online mixed-methods survey assessing trans rights and safety concerns, political self-efficacy, and well-being. Methods Participants were asked to describe the reasons for their level of political engagement. Data was collected between June 2019 and August 2021, with a brief pause for COVID-19. Results Narrative analyses indicate that participants engaged with the political system due to concern for their trans rights and safety (35%), their sense of the personal (55%), communal relevance (26%), their mistrust of the political system (26%), and their political self-efficacy beliefs (26%). Though quantitative analyses indicate that participants’ well-being was significantly, positively correlated with both political security and political self-efficacy, some participants described their political engagement as being related to political fatigue (21%). Moreover, participants who reported political fatigue demonstrated significantly lower political self-efficacy than participants who did not report political fatigue. Conclusions These results suggest that trans political engagement can provide important benefits for well-being, via political self-efficacy, as well as risk factors for psychological harm, via political fatigue. Policy Implications Thus, it is recommended that social policy makers promote safe pathways for trans individuals to engage with the political system and reduce activists’ exposure to anti-trans stigma.

A new paradigm of moral education and civic engagement? A sociological institutionalist interpretation of multiculturalism among Taiwanese youth

ABSTRACT Sociological Institutionalists of education suggest that the first quarter of the 21st century has seen a paradigm shift in moral education worldwide toward depicting global citizenship as rooted in social diversity and common humanity, going beyond the locally focused interests of nation-states. Within the context of the ongoing nation building process in the self-governing territory of Taiwan in the past two decades, this study offers a telling example of the dynamics between the cosmopolitan turn in curriculum reforms and the parallel socio-political realities. Drawing on a large group of university students (N = 1,020) from Taiwan, this paper offers an empirical perspective regarding how multiculturalism promotes civic and political participation as a process of global citizenship making. The indirect effects through the mediating variables of political self-efficacy and trust in the democratic system have also shed some light on how the process works on certain individual and social conditions.

The Role of Subjective Well-Being in Cuban Civil Protest against the Government: A Moderated Mediation Model

This empirical study sought to understand the drivers behind civil protest participation in authoritarian contexts, explicitly focusing on Cuba. The data were sourced from 658 respondents via online surveys facilitated by CubaData, an independent social research agency specializing in Cuban studies, employing a secure panel system that guarantees the confidentiality and anonymity of participants. Our research primarily investigated the role of satisfaction with government policies in terms of the intention to participate in civil protests, introducing subjective well-being as a moderating variable. Utilizing the Process module of SMART-PLS 4 to emulate Process Model 58 for moderated mediation analysis, we accounted for measurement errors to ensure robust findings. Further controls were incorporated for age and political self-efficacy. The results revealed that subjective well-being significantly moderates the link between satisfaction with government policies and actual participation in civil protests. These findings suggest that the happiness level can change resistance dynamics within authoritarian settings. This research has implications for academic understandings of political behavior in autocratic regimes and practical applications in policy making and activism in Cuba.

Minority bonding to political self-efficacy: a case study on bonding and bridging social capital and political self-efficacy among adolescents in Finland

While social capital is claimed to predict, for example, a higher level of trust, better health, and higher voter turnout, its uneven distribution causes concern in society. In this study, we examine which aspects of social capital are connected to political self-efficacy, which is an important predictor of political participation and associated with for example political interest. According to our knowledge, there is a research gap both in terms of studies focusing on analyzing the effect of minority status on political self-efficacy via social capital and studies analyzing these patterns among adolescents living their formative years. In this article we test this mediating effect of social capital among majority and minority adolescents since minorities can be expected to have relatively more bonding social capital and less bridging social capital. In the Finnish context, this is particularly interesting since the Swedish-speaking minority is praised for its high level of social capital that is suggested to explain a lot of its success ranging from better health to a higher turnout compared with the majority. Analyzing a nationwide dataset of 15–16-year-old students (N = 5,189) completing their final year of comprehensive education in Finland in a multilevel structural equation model, we discover that belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority seems to strengthen bonding social capital (social networks, and community). The civic participation, community, and social networks aspects of social capital are positively connected to the level of political self-efficacy, while generalized trust has no connection to it. All these findings indicate that societies should take measures to strengthen bridging and bonding social capital among both adolescents and minorities.

Fridays for Future zwischen Hoffnung und Frustration: Politische Selbstwirksamkeit im Verständnis junger Protestierender

ZusammenfassungDer Artikel untersucht das Selbstverständnis von jungen Aktivist:innen der Fridays for Future (FFF) Bewegung und analysiert, inwiefern und welchen Kontexten sich die Protestierenden politisch selbstwirksam für die zukünftige Entwicklung der Klimakrise verstehen und welche Strategien sie zur Förderung ihrer Selbstwirksamkeit einsetzen. Dabei beziehen wir uns auf das Konzept politischer Selbstwirksamkeit und auf den theoretischen Ansatz der Handlungsfähigkeit junger Menschen. Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen werden empirische, qualitative Interview- und Beobachtungsdaten von jungen Aktivist:innen und Teilnehmer:innen an FFF-Protesten in Deutschland und Österreich herangezogen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich die untersuchten Protestierenden trotz wahrgenommener Hindernisse als politisch wirksame Akteur:innen verstehen. Im persönlichen Umfeld nehmen sie sich als einflussreiche Vorbilder eines klimagerechten Lebensstils wahr, der von anderen übernommen wird. Sie bemerken auch eine (indirekte) Einflussnahme der FFF-Bewegung auf Politik und Regierungen sowie auf das Problembewusstsein der Bevölkerung, insgesamt scheint das Engagement der Aktivist:innen aber mehr von der Hoffnung, denn von benennbaren politischen Erfolgen getragen zu sein. Dementsprechend wird als Strategie zur Stärkung des Glaubens an die Selbstwirksamkeit unter anderem mit der Verbreitung einer optimistischen Grundstimmung gearbeitet.

Mummy’s girls, daddy’s boys: the gendered transmission of political engagement in families

Despite gains in women’s education, workforce participation, and leadership roles, a gender gap in political self-efficacy persists across European nations. Women consistently report lower confidence in their ability to participate in and understand politics compared to their male counterparts. This study posits that, although society inherently signals to boys their place in politics, a politically engaged mother can counteract this by providing her daughter with a positive role model and fostering her interest in politics, thereby bolstering the daughter’s political self-efficacy. Drawing from survey data of 15–16-year-old Finnish students (n = 5220) from 2021, the findings reveal two critical insights: fathers tend to boost political self-efficacy more in sons than in daughters. In contrast, the political engagement of mothers has a stronger positive association with their daughters’ confidence in politics. Moreover, parents’ political involvement fosters political interest in their children, which then enhances the latter’s sense of political self-efficacy.

The role of political engagement of parents in reducing the gender gap in political self-efficacy

Compared with European men, the political self-efficacy of European women is significantly lower: in all European countries, women are generally more pessimistic about their abilities to understand, influence or participate in politics. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how political self-efficacy develops in general and about what explains the gender gap in particular. In this article, we set out to explore to what extent political self-efficacy is strengthened or weakened through observing parents’ political engagement and to what extent this is gender based. We will investigate this impact both overall and by gender, specifically examining the separate influences of the mother and the father, as well as their respective roles in shaping the political self-efficacy of women and men. Our findings suggest that maternal influence exceeds that of the father. While experiences of both an engaged mother and an engaged father increase the likelihood of high levels of political self-efficacy, we find that the experience of a politically engaged mother, in particular, reduces the likelihood of low levels of political self-efficacy in adulthood.

The Learning Democracy: The Relationship Between Adult Informal Learning, Lifelong Learning Mindset, and Civic Engagement

Using structural regression analyses, data from the U.S. 2017 Program on International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) background survey were examined to test the effect of informal learning (observed through everyday activities, such as reading the newspaper or using the Internet to find information about issues) on civic engagement (observed through volunteerism, political self-efficacy, and social trust). Results showed a positive relationship between informal learning and civic engagement with ICT-related activities having the strongest effect. This effect was mediated by presence of a lifelong learning mindset (LLM) observed through traits related to learning motivation and persistence. Although a majority of respondents indicated agreement with LLM attitudes and behaviors, they also reported low frequencies of volunteerism and less agreement with political self-efficacy and social trust statements. The need for governments to provide meaningful opportunities for citizens to contribute their knowledge to the community, thus enabling a learning democracy, is discussed in light of these findings.

Conceptualizing Difference

Abstract This article formulates the concept of democracy as a configuration to overcome the rigid universalist, liberal-proceduralist dominated conceptions of democracy that define invariant core elements and combine them with culturally individualistic features. Instead, the approach presented here focuses on the basic principles behind democracy. Lincoln's often-criticized broad definition of democracy as “government by, of, and for the people” provides the opportunity for an open, transglobal approach that focuses on the premise of political self-efficacy for all citizens and portrays democracy not as a mechanism but as a way of life. Political self-efficacy can be institutionalized in different ways, so this contribution refers to specific models of democracy (e.g., liberal, republican, or communitarian).

Political self-efficacy matters: an investigation of how and when leader political mentoring affects follower political behavior and promotability

PurposeThe authors propose a new motivation construct, political self-efficacy, and investigate how and when leader political mentoring influences follower political behavior and promotability through political self-efficacy.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected four samples to develop a scale for political self-efficacy and conducted two field studies of leader-follower dyads to examine the model.FindingsLeader political mentoring enhances followers' political behavior and promotability through increasing their political self-efficacy. These positive indirect effects are stronger when followers have a higher positive political perception.Originality/valueThis study integrates mentoring research with organizational politics literature and theorizes how a domain-specific self-efficacy—political self-efficacy, translates the positive impact of leader political mentoring on constructive behavioral and career-related outcomes.

Политический юмор в массовой коммуникации

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective. </strong>The analysis of the impact of humorous messages about politics, which are distributed through the channels of mass communication, on the perceptions, assessments, and behavior of people in the political sphere.<br><strong>Background. </strong>Humorous messages about politics can be found in various countries and presented in different forms. Nevertheless, the researchers cannot come to unambiguous conclusions about their impact on people’s attitudes towards political reality. This article reviews the results obtained and highlights areas for further research.<br><strong>Conclusions. </strong>Humorous messages about politics, which are distributed through mass communication channels, can be seen as persuasive influence. Humor increases attention to messages on political topics and complicates their understanding. This, in turn, reduces the thoroughness of information analysis, i.e., increases the likelihood of using a peripheral/heuristic strategy. The impact of humorous messages is an increase in political knowledge and internal political self-efficacy, a deterioration in attitudes towards politicians and the political system, and, as a result, an increase in readiness for political behavior. However, the strength and direction of this influence depend in part on the characteristics of the communicator (e.g., host or politician), the characteristics of the message (e.g., superficial or deep, mild, or hard humor), and the characteristics of the audience (e.g., political awareness).</p>

The Effect of Social Capital on Outcomes of Global Citizenship among Taiwanese Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Political Self-efficacy

The purpose of this article is to examine the level of social capital and global citizenship in Taiwan. In this study, we argue that high social capital and political self-efficacy promote the outcomes of global citizenship. We review the development of global citizenship education policy and its association with social capital and political self-efficacy. Based on the nationwide survey dataset collected from Taiwanese universitiy students, we carefully examine the relations between social capital, political self-efficacy, and global citizenship. We adopt a multiple mediation analysis with a bootstrapped method to validate our conceptual research model. The results show that there are significant positive relationships between the nine observed variables (i.e., social trust, social proactivity, political self-efficacy and six global citizenship outcomes). In addition, our findings of mediation analysis reveal that social capital, indicated by social trust and social proactivity, indirectly affects the five outcomes of global citizenship through political self-efficacy, except for the outcome of global environmental sustainability. In light of the empirical results, this article also discusses the implications of global citizenship education policy and the formation of sustainable global citizenship.

Social Optimism of Russians in a Crisis: Results of a Longitudinal Study

The article considers the main approaches to the study of social optimism as a socio-psychological phenomenon, highlights its theoretical structure and functions. The results of a longitudinal empirical study conducted among adult Russians (N = 664, six measurements) from March 3 to December 26, 2022 and aimed at identifying the socio-psychological antecedents of the stability of social optimism in the conditions of crisis are presented. It is shown that social optimism is directly related to personal characteristics that underlie the resilience: self-efficacy, perceived control, dispositional optimism, positive reframing and seeking emotional support in a critical situation. The study reveals that perceived control increases the stability of the individual's social optimism in a crisis. The higher the social well-being of the individual, the belief in his ability to contribute to the development of society, the more stable is social optimism. The hypothesis is confirmed that social optimism is enhanced by socio-psychological characteristics that facilitate the consolidation of efforts for a joint response to the challenges of the crisis: civic identity; perceived social support; empathy for others affected by the war; generalized trust; trust in civil society institutions; as well as political self-efficacy, that is, the belief in the ability to influence political decisions made in the country. On the contrary, social optimism is negatively associated with belief in a dangerous world, social cynicism, and a conspiracy worldview. The main contribution to the stability of social optimism is made by collective political self-efficacy, while social cynicism accelerates its decline. The results of the study made it possible to suggest the existence of two complementary mechanisms for maintaining social optimism: through strengthening civic identification and the importance of the collective future for the individual (this role is played by moral foundations of respect for authority, loyalty to one’s group and sanctity) and through empathy and strengthening the importance of mutual assistance in a crisis (under the influence of "individualizing" moral foundations of caring for people and fairness).

Factors Influencing Young Malaysians’ Political Information Seeking Behaviour on Twitter

Youth participation in political discourses is an important element that needs to be looked into urgently in Malaysia. This is especially so with the historical milestone of the Undi18 constitutional amendment allowing youth from 18 years old to vote in the 15th General Election. This research was initiated to investigate the youth's behaviour in terms of attitude, awareness, and involvement in politics via social media, specifically Twitter. In this study, involvement in politics is described as youths' political information seeking behaviour on Twitter in relation to political attitudes such as political self-efficacy, situational political involvement, government trust, and processing of information, that is perceived information quality. An online survey form was disseminated across Twitter using snowball sampling for Klang Valley Twitter users aged between 18 to 30. The results garnered from 314 respondents revealed significant relationships between independent variables (self-efficacy, situational, political involvement, government trust, and information quality) and the dependent variable (Twitter motivation). It was hoped that this study would help researchers better grasp the pattern on how Malaysian youth use Twitter to get political information. This study may also provide important information on the online diffusion and consumption of political information through social media like Twitter. Keywords: Political information-seeking behaviour, processing information, youth, Twitter, Malaysia.

The Impact of Facebook Use on Political Self-efficacy and Online Political Participation among Young Voters

The Impact of Facebook Use on Political Self-efficacy and Online Political Participation among Young Voters

Fictional politainment: Exposure to international television drama and attitude toward female politicians

We examine the relationship between media use motivations and attitudes toward female politicians by proposing a conceptual model explaining the role of key mediating variables such as identification, narrative transportation, enjoyment, and political self-efficacy in influencing the attitude of the viewers of international TV drama towards female role models (politicians). We investigated the direct and indirect effects between media use motivations and attitudes toward female politicians by recruiting 359 students from two large public universities in the Southeastern United States. The hypothesized model supported the evidence presented in extant scholarship, suggesting that a meaningful entertainment experience could foster an appreciation of the fictional televisual entertainment and positively change attitudes toward female lead characters playing the role of a viable and competent politician. This study resonates with politicians, academics, and activists’ concerns that a positive media portrayal could promote the acceptability of female leaders in powerful positions. Our study clarifies the direct and indirect effects between media use motivations and attitudes toward female politicians and the role of crucial mediating variables such as identification, narrative transportation, enjoyment, and political self-efficacy in influencing the attitude of the viewers of international TV drama towards female politicians.