Symbolic disempowerment and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election: Mental health responses among Latinx and white populations

Brittany N Morey; San Juanita García; Tanya Nieri; Tim A Bruckner; Bruce G Link

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114417

Symbolic disempowerment and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election: Mental health responses among Latinx and white populations

Soc Sci Med. 2021 Nov:289:114417. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114417. Epub 2021 Sep 25.

Authors

Brittany N Morey¹, San Juanita García², Tanya Nieri³, Tim A Bruckner⁴, Bruce G Link⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health, Society, & Behavior, Program in Public Health, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA. Electronic address: brittany.morey@uci.edu.
² Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
³ Department of Sociology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Health, Society, & Behavior, Program in Public Health, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention, Program in Public Health, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Sociology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA; School of Public Policy, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA.

PMID: 34656819
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114417

Abstract

The 2016 election of United States (U.S.) President Donald Trump was a political event that may have affected population-level mental health. A prominent theme in the Trump election was anti-immigrant policy that contributed to a racist and xenophobic sociopolitical climate. Applying a symbolic dis/empowerment framework, this study examines whether there was an effect of the Trump election on the mental health of the U.S. population that differed by race/ethnicity, language of interview, and state-level support for Trump or Clinton. We used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2011-2018 to examine trends in poor mental health days in the five months after the U.S Presidential election (November 2016 to March 2017) compared to all other survey months. We conducted difference-in-differences analyses using negative binomial regression models to examine the effect of the five post-election months on the rate of poor mental health days, comparing six population categories: 1) non-Latinx white populations in Trump states, 2) non-Latinx white populations in Clinton states, 3) English-speaking Latinx populations in Trump states, 4) English-speaking Latinx populations in Clinton states, 5) Spanish-speaking Latinx populations in Trump states, and 6) Spanish-speaking Latinx populations in Clinton states. White populations in Clinton states reported more poor mental health days in response to the five months post-election period compared to white populations in Trump states. English-speaking Latinx people living in Trump states experienced higher than expected poor mental health days in November 2016 and February 2017. Spanish-speaking Latinx people, by contrast, reported fewer poor mental health days in the post-election period. The 2016 U.S. presidential election preceded population-level changes in mental health that support a symbolic dis/empowerment framework. We discuss possible explanations and the mental health implications for future major political events.

Keywords: Ethnicity; Mental health; National sociopolitical environment; Population health; Race; State political environment; Symbolic disempowerment; U.S. presidential election.

MeSH terms

Emigrants and Immigrants*
Ethnicity
Humans
Mental Health*
Politics
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States