Voting propensity and parental depression

Abstract

Among the most prevalent and costly of all illnesses worldwide, depression also has substantive consequences for democratic politics, not least because it is associated with lower voting propensity. One of the most reliable predictors of becoming depressed is a family history of depression, an intergenerational link thought to arise through multiple mechanisms that increase a person's cognitive, behavioural and affective disposition towards depression. We study if a person's voting propensity in adulthood is predicted by their parents' depressive symptomatology during early childhood and whether this is mediated by the likelihood of being depressed in adulthood. We analyse the 1970 British Cohort Study in which persons belonging to a same cohort have been systematically followed from early childhood to midlife. The results show that parents' symptoms of depression predict offspring's voting propensity, especially earlier in adulthood, although the effect is relatively small. Contrary to predictions, the effect is mostly direct.