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

Thomas McLaren^1*Toni Fleischer¹Tobias Schott^1*Anne Weiß¹Marie Blume¹Christine Ulke¹Andreas Hinz²Nigar Reyes³Samira Zeynalova^4,5Georg Schomerus¹Sven 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

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.