Relative deprivation and revolt: current and future directions

Solidarity with whom? Minority perspectives on allyship in Danish queer spaces

Social psychological research has witnessed a burgeoning interest in advantaged group allies acting in solidarity with disadvantaged groups to challenge systems of inequality. While solidarity from advantaged group members is often deemed critical for social change, the perceptions of disadvantaged group members regarding ally participation are seldom addressed. This research delved into how LGBTQIA+ individuals in Denmark conceptualize allyship. Through 26 semi-structured interviews with participants and organizers of queer pride events, a thematic analysis identified three themes addressing how allyship materializes, what risks it bears and who it involves. Specifically, we present a three-levelled framework of allyship, which captures practices of allyship on a personal, relational and structural level. Our analysis also reveals the risk of allyship when it is not perceived as genuine and complexities of group boundaries when discussing allyship, shedding light on intersectional challenges within minority communities. These findings illustrate the nuances involved in providing and receiving allyship within and across various social (sub)groups.

Roles of self-efficacy and self-control in the association between relative deprivation and psychological well-being among undergraduate students during COVID-19 pandemic

Prior research show that relative deprivation can decrease individuals' psychological well-being. However, the underlying mechanism between relative deprivation and psychological well-being remains unclear. To explore the mediating effects of self-efficacy and self-control on the relationship between relative deprivation and psychological well-being. 426 undergraduate students submitted the online survey that assessed their psychological well-being, relative deprivation, self-efficacy and self-control. Students experienced high levels of psychological well-being, moderate to high levels of relative deprivation and moderate levels of self-efficacy and self-control. Parallel mediators of self-efficacy and self-control on the relationship between relative deprivation and psychological well-being were significant (each p < 0.01). This study explores the underlying mechanism between relative deprivation and psychological well-being by identifying the parallel mediators of self-efficacy and self-control. Effective interventions should be taken to alleviate students' relative deprivation and promote their self-efficacy, self-control and psychological well-being during future pandemics.

Latent classes of adolescent health behaviour, social covariates and mental wellbeing: a longitudinal birth cohort study

BACKGROUND

Adolescent mental wellbeing has been declining in the United Kingdom for over a decade. Expansion of services to support the mental wellbeing of young people is a public health priority and a core component of the National Health Service's Long-Term Plan. In this paper, we leverage secondary analysis of a very large longitudinal dataset (#BeeWell) to generate insights regarding different patterns of health behaviour, their covariates, and consequences for mental wellbeing one year later.

METHODS

A Latent Class Analysis was conducted using data on physical activity, sleep, and eating habits collected in 2021 from 18,478 Year 8 pupils from Greater Manchester (United Kingdom) to (1) identify distinct latent classes of adolescent health behaviour; (2) establish factors likely to be associated with latent class membership; and (3) determine whether latent class membership contributes to variance in self-reported mental wellbeing one year later.

RESULTS

A three-class solution was identified as an excellent fit to the data, discriminating between: the Wellness Weary (n = 2,717; 15%); the Balanced Bunch (n = 7,377; 40%); and the Green and Dream Team (n = 8,384; 45%). Several factors significantly influenced class membership. Most notably, socio-economic disadvantage and social media use were linked with less favourable health behaviour patterns, whilst cisgender heterosexual girls were likely to endorse healthier patterns. After adjusting for covariates, the Green and Dream Team reported significantly greater mental wellbeing than the Balanced Bunch one year later. However, there was no difference between the Balanced Bunch and the Wellness Weary, signalling that health behaviours may support mental wellbeing, but only among the healthiest young people.

CONCLUSIONS

Beyond advancements in fundamental understanding, our findings yield significant translation opportunities through their use and application in health, education, and allied professional settings designed to support young people.

Comparative analysis of village doctors' relative deprivation: based on two cross-sectional surveys

BACKGROUND

Village doctors are the main health service providers in China's rural areas. Compared with other rural groups, they will have a sense of relative deprivation, which has an impact on their practice mentality and job stability. This study aims to analyze the changes and causes of relative deprivation among village doctors, so as to improve the stability of them.

METHODS

The data were collected from two surveys conducted in Shandong Province in 2015 and 2021. In 2015, 322 village doctors were surveyed and 307 questionnaires were collected, with a recovery rate of 95.3%. In 2021, 394 village doctors were surveyed and 366 questionnaires were collected, with a recovery rate of 92.9%. Descriptive and univariate analysis were used to compare the changes before and after the survey.

RESULTS

The scores of vertical deprivation of village doctors increased from 2.77 ± 0.81 in 2015 to 3.04 ± 0.83 in 2021, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001). The reference group selected by village doctors changed from village teachers to ordinary villagers. Compared to village teachers, the horizontal deprivation score of village doctors increased from 3.47 ± 0.87 to 3.97 ± 0.77, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001). Compared to villagers, only the professional reputation deprivation score increased, from 2.38 ± 0.93 to 2.68 ± 0.76, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

As time goes by, village doctors fail to reach the expected level in terms of economic income, social status, professional reputation and living standards, resulting in a sense of relative deprivation. This may have a negative impact on village doctors' work motivation and behavior, and will fail to guarantee the sustainability of the team. We should pay attention to this unbalanced mentality of village doctors.

Cognitive reappraisal and empathy chain-mediate the association between relative deprivation and prosocial behavior in adolescents

Background

Relative deprivation is one of the factors that influences the development of personality and behavior. However, it is still unclear whether and how relative deprivation decreases the prosocial behavior in adolescents. This study aimed to examine the association between relative deprivation and adolescent prosocial behavior and the role of emotion regulation strategies and empathy in modifying this association.

Methods

The present study included 609 secondary school students (M = 15.42 years, SD = 0.653) in Fujian Province, China. All participants completed the Relative Deprivation Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Scale, the Basic Empathy Scale, and Prosocial Behavior Scale. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 7.4.

Results

Relative deprivation was negatively correlated with cognitive reappraisal, but positively correlated with expressive suppression. Cognitive reappraisal was positively correlated with empathy and prosocial behavior, but expressive suppression was not. Empathy was positively correlated with prosocial behavior. Relative deprivation decreased prosocial behavior through (a) cognitive reappraisal, (b) empathy, and (c) chain mediation of cognitive reappraisal and empathy. No significant mediating effect of expressive suppression was found.

Conclusion

The results indicate that relative deprivation decreases adolescent prosocial behavior, and that cognitive reappraisal and empathy are the potential psychological mechanisms that affect the association between relative deprivation and adolescent prosocial behavior.

Associations between relative deprivation with opioid use among working-age adults during the great recession

Recessions, poverty, and unemployment have been associated with opioid use. However, these measures of financial hardship may be imprecise, limiting our ability to understand this relationship. We tested associations between relative deprivation and non-medical prescription opioid use (NMPOU) and heroin use among working-age adults (ages 18-64) during the Great Recession. Our sample included working-age adults in the 2005-2013 United States National Survey of Drug Use and Health (n = 320,186). Relative deprivation compared the lowest limit of participants' income category to the national 25th percentile individual income for people with similar socio-demographic characteristics (race and ethnicity, gender, year). We distinguished the period before (1/2005-11/2007), during (12/2007-06/2009), and after (07/2007-12/2013) the Great Recession. We estimated odds of past-year NMPOU and heroin use for each past-year exposure (i.e., relative deprivation, poverty, unemployment) using separate logistic regressions adjusting for individual-level covariates (gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, and education) and national-level annual Gini coefficient. Our results show that NMPOU was higher among people experiencing relative deprivation (aOR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.06-1.20), poverty (aOR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.16-1.29), and unemployment (aOR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.32-1.53) between 2005 and 2013, as was heroin use (aORs = 2.54, 2.09, 3.55, respectively). The association between relative deprivation and NMPOU was modified by recession timing, and was significantly higher after the Recession (aOR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.11-1.33). Relative deprivation was associated with higher odds of NMPOU and heroin use, and higher odds of NMPOU after the Great Recession. Our findings suggest contextual-level factors may modify the relationship between relative deprivation and opioid use, and support the need for new measures of financial hardship.

Who endorses group-based violence?

Collective action is often equated with progressive politics, but are there aspects of group mobilisations that generalise across contexts? We examine general social and personality psychological factors behind endorsement of group-based violence across different types of violent group mobilisation. Specifically, we focus on the endorsement of group-based violence amongst supporters of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement ( N = 394), an immigration-critical group ( N = 252), and soccer supporters ( N = 445). Across three preregistered studies, we tested an integrative model including personality and social psychological factors. Several effects were consistent across all three contexts, with group-based relative deprivation positively, and honesty-humility negatively, predicting support for violence. Further, amongst BLM supporters and the immigration-critical group, emotionality negatively predicted support for violence, violent intentions, and self-reported aggression/violence. Overall, our results suggest that individuals who endorse violence in different contexts have some psychological factors in common.

Does Compulsory Citizenship Behavior Necessarily Reduce Employee’s Work Well-Being? The Role of Relative Deprivation and Resource Compensation Based on Compulsory Citizenship Behavior

Purpose

On the basis of previous research results, the opinion that compulsory citizenship behavior (CCB) leads to negative impacts over employees and organizations prevails. However, the latest researches negate the absence of rewards and favorable evaluation from organizational system for CCB. Instead, CCB is likely to be awarded by incentive allocation and recognitive affirmation. In the case of the resource compensation based on CCB, will the expected utility of CCB still show the consistence with the traditional CCB researches, imposing negative effects over employees and organizations?

Methods

This research explored the mechanism and boundary condition based on self-determination theory (SDT) and relative deprivation theory (RDT) to avert the negative effects of CCB, hoping to explain the above question. Time-lagged survey data from 227 employees tested the moderated mediation model, and the results verified the hypotheses.

Results

With resource compensation after the delivery of CCB, employees will not feel relative deprivation caused by reluctant false citizenship behaviors. In addition, relative deprivation expresses the gap between expectation and reality, low psychological discrepancy will not deeply undermine employees’ work well-being.

Bottom-up populism: How relative deprivation and populist attitudes mobilize leaderless anti-government protest

The present research focuses on populism as a bottom-up phenomenon that emerges from shared perceptions of relative deprivation. We predict that by serving as a shared ideological basis, populist attitudes can mobilize leaderless anti-government protest across ideological boundaries. We test this prediction in the context of the French Yellow Vests movement. Using a sample of French citizens (N = 562), we compare the effects of different indicators of relative deprivation on Yellow Vest protest participation and the extent to which populist attitudes account for these relationships. Results indicate that protests were fuelled by indicators of relative deprivation at the individual and group levels. Populist attitudes were best predicted by vertical comparisons between “the people” and “the elite” and fully accounted for the relationship between this type of group relative deprivation and protesting. Conversely, populist attitudes only partially accounted for the relationships between protesting and traditional measures of relative deprivation that either contrast natives with immigrants or individuals with fellow citizens. The findings strengthen the understanding of populism as a “thin centred” belief set that can unite and mobilize those who feel unfairly disadvantaged compared to a socio-political elite.

Expectations of trustworthiness in cross-status interactions

Although the literature on trust is vast, little is known about the attributes that trigger or inhibit trusting others we do not know. Using a vignette version of the trust game, we addressed the role that social standing plays in estimating trustworthiness of strangers in cross-status interactions in Chile, a non-WEIRD context also characterized by high inequality and social segregation. While we found a positive relationship between social status and generalized trust, we found no relationship between the social status of trustors and trusting behavior in the game. Besides, trustees' income was the most important attribute for trustors to decide how much to trust. We also found that higher-income trustees are less trusted in general, particularly by lower-status trustors. Finally, the results revealed that the influence of income differences on trust was higher for lower-status participants: they are more trustful of others of similar status. We did not observe a similar effect of ingroup favoritism on trust among higher-status participants. Thus, higher levels of relational or particularized trust were found among participants of lower social status compared to those of higher social status.