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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Soc. Psychol.

Sec. Attitudes, Social Justice and Political Psychology

Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsps.2025.1659017

The impact of political marginalisation in the former German Democratic Republic on satisfaction with life in a population-based sample

Provisionally accepted
Thomas  McLarenThomas McLaren1*Toni  FleischerToni Fleischer1Tobias  SchottTobias Schott1*Anne  WeißAnne Weiß1Marie  BlumeMarie Blume1Christine  UlkeChristine Ulke1Andreas  HinzAndreas Hinz2Nigar  ReyesNigar Reyes3Samira  ZeynalovaSamira Zeynalova4,5Georg  SchomerusGeorg Schomerus1Sven  SpeerforckSven Speerforck1
  • 1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
  • 2Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
  • 3Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, Universitat Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
  • 4Institute for Medical Informatics, Universitat Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
  • 5Leipzig Research Centre for Civilization Diseases, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Backround: Political marginalisation of people by state institutions is both a historical and a contemporary problem. In the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), there was considerable political repression by the state. The present study examines the influence of political marginalisation in the GDR on later satisfaction with life and how this association is mediated by social support and anxiety. Methods: Data is analysed from the cohort study of the Leipzig Research Centre for Civilisation Diseases. The sample includes n=230 adults who reported political marginalisation in the GDR and a matched group of n=230 adults who did not experience such marginalisation. Participants self-reported on their current state of satisfaction with life (SWLS), social support (ESSI-D) and anxiety (GAD-7). Gender stratified mediation models were conducted with the R-package Lavaan. Results: The study sample consisted of N=460 participants (gender: n=274, 59.6% women; age: M=59 years, SD=11.3). Generally, participants reporting political marginalisation have higher GAD-7 as well as lower SWLS and ESSI-D scores. The mediation results show that for men, the relationship between political marginalisation and SWLS was mediated by GAD-7 symptoms, whereas this was not the case for women. Social support wasn't a mediator. Conclusion: Previous findings on political persecution are replicated here. The mixed results are discussed in the light of gender differences in the ways in which men and women experienced marginalisation as well as the different likelihood of being detained. Although no association with social support is found, we caution against over-interpreting this finding, as other studies clearly show the importance of social support.

Keywords: German democratic republic, political persecution and marginalisation, social support, Anxiety, satisfaction with life

Received: 03 Jul 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 McLaren, Fleischer, Schott, Weiß, Blume, Ulke, Hinz, Reyes, Zeynalova, Schomerus and Speerforck. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Thomas McLaren, thomas.mclaren@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Tobias Schott, tobias.schott@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

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