Policy Feedbacks and Medicaid on its 60th Anniversary.

CONTEXT: Despite early skepticism about Medicaid's ability to withstand retrenchment as a program of "welfare medicine," it has proved remarkably durable. Existing analyses explain durability with a policy feedbacks perspective - how program provisions affect the subsequent political environment and policymaking options. This article updates earlier feedback accounts to the ACA era. METHODS: Examines extant findings on policy feedbacks in Medicaid at the elite and mass levels since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. FINDINGS: Mass feedbacks have been modest. Medicaid expansion under the ACA only slightly increased beneficiary political participation, if at all. Medicaid attitudes among beneficiaries and the larger public have become somewhat more supportive. Elite-level feedbacks are the most powerful, with the federal contribution, increased for expansion populations under the ACA, inexorably shaping state incentives. However, continued rejection of Medicaid expansion and attempts to add conditions to Medicaid eligibility in Republican-led states with large shares of Black residents demonstrate that federalism, race, and the program's welfare medicine image continue to threaten the program. CONCLUSION: Medicaid survives as the nation's largest health insurance program by enrollment, and is deeply woven into the health care system, but remains chronically vulnerable and variable across states despite robust aggregate enrollment and spending.

Empowering Psychiatric Inpatients to Vote: Perceptions of Voting and the Barriers Encountered.

Individuals with psychiatric illness believe that voting is important. However, these individuals have lower rates of voting when compared to the general population. A survey of psychiatrically hospitalized adult patients was conducted to assess perceptions of and barriers to voting in patients with psychiatric illness. Data from 113 surveys was analyzed. A majority of survey participants agreed that they cared about voting, that their vote made a difference, and that their vote was important. 74% of individuals reported previously experiencing at least one barrier when exercising their right to vote. The most commonly experienced barriers reported were not having enough information to make an informed choice, not knowing where to vote, not having transportation, and not being registered to vote. Individuals who encountered a higher number of barriers in the past had a higher chance of encountering barriers more often. In conclusion, a high percentage of individuals with mental illness severe enough to warrant hospitalization have experienced barriers to voting, with many experiencing multiple barriers. Reduction of these barriers is important, as voting and the resultant public policies can directly affect this population's mental health and access to both mental and physical healthcare services.

Nurse state legislators, 2013 to 2023.

BACKGROUND: Electing nurse legislators can help states make sound health policy. PURPOSE: To document the distribution of American nurses elected to state-level offices in 2023 and compare it to data from 2013. METHODS: We developed a directory of 2023 nurses elected to state legislatures. Data collected include state, year elected, party, committees, re-election date, and full/part-time state legislature. FINDINGS: In 2023, there were 72 nurse legislators in 36 states. These nurse legislators' affiliations were divided almost evenly between the two major parties (38 Republicans and 34 Democrats). Sixty legislators serve on health committees; 32 on finance committees. Fourteen serve in states that have full-time legislatures. The majority (n = 60) are up for re-election in 2024. In 2013, there were 97 legislators in 39 states. DISCUSSION: Over the last decade, the number of nurse legislators has declined. CONCLUSION: State legislatures play key roles in funding and regulating health policy. Identifying where nurses currently serve provides actionable information for those seeking to recruit, train, and elect nurse candidates.

Why are Older Israeli Arabs not Part of the Protests Against the Judicial Reform? A Qualitative Study.

In the protests against the proposed judicial reform that began in early 2023 in Israel, the lack of participa• Policymakers should make efforts to reduce the socioeconomic gaps between older people from minority and majority groups.tion of Israeli Arabs, especially the absence of older Israeli Arabs, was noticeable. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the attitudes of older Israeli Arabs regarding the proposed judicial reform in Israel and to explore the reasons for their absence from the protests. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 older Israeli Arabs. Thematic analysis revealed two main themes. The first pertained to the attitudes of this cohort in relation to the judicial reform. Participants unanimously opposed the judicial reform and believed it could seriously harm Israeli Arabs by increasing discrimination against them in employment, housing, and the receipt of social and health services. The second theme pertained to the reasons for Israeli Arabs' nonparticipation in the protests, which included: 1) perceiving the protests as an internal Jewish conflict; 2) being accustomed to discrimination; 3) a perceived lack of political efficacy 3) having concerns about openly expressing political positions; 4) being in poor health; and 5) being a woman. Our findings provide important insights regarding the barriers to participation in politics and decision-making processes among older people in minority groups.

Promoting Health Equity Through Voter Support Activities for the Inpatient Psychiatric Population.

Individuals with mental illness often face barriers to voting. One of the primary barriers is not being registered to vote. This paper describes voter support activities (VSAs) provided to hospitalized adults on the acute inpatient psychiatric units at Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute. During the six weeks preceding the 2020 general election, adult inpatients were offered six VSAs and an optional survey examining previous voting behaviors and barriers encountered to voting. VSAs included checking voter registration status and polling location, completing a paper or electronic voter registration application, and requesting a mail-in ballot. Of 189 patients approached, 119 individuals participated in the survey and 60 individuals utilized at least one VSA. This project demonstrates that VSAs are a welcome and feasible resource for psychiatrically hospitalized adults. Psychiatric providers can serve an important role in promoting access to voting-related activities for their patients.

Participatory Inequality Across Countries: Contacting Public Officials Online and Offline.

The Internet offers low-cost ways to participate in political life, which reduces the motivation required to participate and thus potentially reduces inequalities in participation. I examine online and offline contacting of elected officials using original survey data from Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States collected in 2019 and 2021. Education is a consistent positive predictor of contacting in all countries as well as both modes of contact (online and offline). Income differences are small. Younger people are more likely to contact officials, online and offline, compared to older people. Females are less likely to contact officials, online and offline, compared to males. While political interest, efficacy, online information consumption, and online group ties are believed to lead to more equity in online communication, I do not see strong differences in these variables for online and offline contacting. I conclude by discussing the implications of exclusively online contacting of officials when this form of contact is devalued by elected officials, as well as the implications of participatory inequalities with respect to influencing public policy and access to government services.

For the Sake of Myself, My Colleagues and My Community: Exploring the Benefits of Political Participation in Later Life.

Most studies on the benefits of late life civic engagement have focused exclusively on formal volunteering. Older adults' political participation is much more overlooked. The current paper explores the benefits of long-term participation in political organizations as described by actively engaged Spanish older people. We used an adaptation of McAdams' life-story interview with 40 participants from three types of political organizations who occupy a responsible position within the organization. We identified three main themes in participants' answers: personal benefits, relational benefits, and community benefits. Overall, our results showed that the benefits arising from long-term political participation go far beyond the well-studied individual benefits that research on late-life volunteering has typically identified, and spread to relational and community areas. Social work practitioners should consider these benefits when they implement plans and programmes to promote healthy, active ways of aging, fostering age-friendly communities or reducing old-age social exclusion.

Understanding news engagement on social media: A media repertoire approach.

This study promotes the news repertoire framework as an analytical approach best suited for studying news engagement on social media (SM), considering its multifaceted nature. To demonstrate the theoretical benefits of this proposal, the study seeks to (1) identify user profiles based on SM news viewing and sharing, and news consumption on other platforms; (2) determine profile predictors; and (3) evaluate their possible outcomes. A panel study (N = 1786) demonstrated the emergence of identifiable profiles, attributed to differences in SM use and political interest. In addition, profiles embodied different effects on political participation over time. A second study (N = 86) was conducted thereafter, in which users' Facebook news feed use was analyzed to determine differences in news supply according to profiles. Findings that could not have been achieved using the more common unidimensional news consumption methods are discussed in light of new theoretical gains provided by the repertoire approach.

Civic Education, Teaching Quality and Students' Willingness to Participate in Political and Civic Life: Political Interest and Knowledge as Mediators.

Civic education is generally assumed to play a key role in youth's political sophistication. It aims to equip young people with the necessary competencies and skills to effectively participate in political and civic life. However, few studies have examined the relative importance of different facets of teaching quality within civic education as well as mediating factors for fostering active citizens. The present study seeks to fill this gap by investigating how different facets of teaching quality are associated with adolescents' willingness to participate in political and civic life and how this relationship is mediated by political knowledge and interest. The study uses original data from N = 250 students (n = 152 7th graders: Mage = 12.54, SD = 0.91, range = 11-14, 45% female; n = 98 10th graders: Mage = 16.12, SD = 0.97, range = 15-18, 35% female). The findings show that not all teaching quality facets are equally important. While perceived cognitive activation and open classroom climate were positively associated with students' willingness to participate, a statistically significant association with discussions of current political events in the classroom was not found. In addition, the relationship between perceived cognitive activation and willingness to participate is fully mediated by students' political knowledge and interest. This study illustrates the relative importance of different teaching quality facets in civic education and calls for continued efforts to better understand teaching quality in civic education.

How Social Ties with Undocumented Immigrants Motivate Latinx Political Participation.

Prior research suggests social ties with undocumented immigrants among Latinxs may increase political engagement despite constraints undocumented social networks may introduce. We build on prior research and find across six surveys of Latinxs that social ties with undocumented immigrants are reliably associated with collective, identity expressive activities such as protesting, but not activities where immigration may not be immediately relevant, such as voting. Moreover, we assess a series of mechanisms to resolve the puzzle of heightened participation despite constraints. Consistent with prior research at the intersection of anti-immigrant threat and Social Identity Theory, we find Latinxs with strong ethnic identification are more likely to engage in political protest in the presence of social ties with undocumented immigrants, whereas weak identifiers disengage. We rule out alternative mechanisms that could link undocumented social ties with participation including political efficacy, a sense of injustice, linked fate, acculturation, outgroup perceptions of immigration status, partisan identity, conducive opportunity structures, and prosociality. Our contribution suggests the reason social ties with undocumented immigrants are not necessarily a hindrance to political engagement among Latinx immigrants and their co-ethnics is because they can draw from identitarian resources to overcome participatory constraints.

America's rusted families: working-class political participation through three biological generations (1965-1997).

Has social reproduction through families preserved unequal political participation amongst the working class in post-industrial society? This article builds on both political and sociological traditions to consider the family as a tenacious social structure that reproduces political participation from one generation to the next. In order to answer this empirically, the study uses a longitudinal panel data of political behaviour across three biological generations in the United States (1965-1997). The findings show that respondents who grew up in working-class families are less likely to vote as adults regardless of whether they have working-class occupations or not. The transmission of un-equal participation is partially mediated by the voting behaviour of the parent who models this behaviour to their children. The study also shows that the second generation of respondents transmits low political participation to their offspring in the third generation. This study implies that occupational structures of a past industrial society are still politically relevant and that inequalities in political participation remain a legacy amongst the biological descendants of working-class families from the 1960s. Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2044220 .

Age, education, and political involvement differences in daily election-related stress.

Stress in daily life is rather common, but elections can present unique challenges. Evaluating the impact of individual characteristics, behaviors, and political beliefs on stress processes is imperative to understanding how elections influence psychological well-being. Exploring how these individual and behavioral characteristics interacted to predict exposure to election-related stressors, we hypothesized that age, education, and past socio-political involvement would be associated with exposure to election-related stressors. In the 2018 U.S. Midterm Election Stress Coping and Prevention Every Day (ESCAPED) study, 140 participants in the United States and territories aged 19-86 were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk for a 30-day daily diary study. Collectively, participants completed a total of 1196 reports between October 15, 2018 and November 13, 2018. The midterm election was November 6, 2018. Each day, participants reported on past political participation, election stress anticipation, and exposure to election-related stressors. Confirming our hypothesis, on days when people were more politically active and on days when stress anticipation increased, exposure to election-related stressors increased. Age differences in exposure depended on political activity in the last 24 h, with older adults exhibiting a steeper increase in exposure following political activity, especially if they were highly educated. However, higher education was protective against election-related stressors among younger adults even with increases in political activity. Individuals' experiences, characteristics, and daily decisions influence the likelihood of exposure to election-related stressors. Additionally, for younger adults, education may function as a protective factor when they engage in political activities.

The impact of Hurricane María on the political participation of Puerto Rican University students in UPR Cayey.

This research paper focuses on the political participation of students from the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey (UPR-Cayey) after Hurricane María. The culture, perspective, politics, and resistance of these students are researched in light of other sub-contexts, such as the protests pressuring the former governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló to resign. The ages of the participants ranged from 19 to 23 years old; they were all students from UPR-Cayey, and they were interviewed. The researchers are also students from the UPR-Cayey. The perspective of this research project is an anthropological one and uses analytical coding tools with interviews followed up with field notes from the protests of July 2019. We found that most of the people interviewed for this research project were very interested in the government's corruption and Puerto Rican resistance. Our investigation indirectly illustrates the aspects of our Puerto Rican culture that become salient during the protests.

Association between cigarette smoking status and voting intentions: Cross sectional surveys in England 2015-2020.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cigarette smoking takes place within a cultural and social context. Political views and practices are an important part of that context. To gain a better understanding of smoking, it may be helpful to understand its association with voting patterns as an expression of the political views and practices of the population who smoke. This study aimed to assess the association between cigarette smoking and voting intentions and to examine how far any association can be explained by sociodemographic factors and alcohol use. METHODS: Pooled monthly representative repeat cross-sectional household surveys of adults (16+) in England (N = 55,482) between 2015 and 2020 were used to assess the association between cigarette smoking status and voting intentions, and whether this was accounted for by age, occupational grade, gender, region and alcohol use. Voting intention was measured by asking 'How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow?' Respondents chose from a list of the major English political parties or indicated their intention not to vote. RESULTS: In adjusted multinomial regression, compared with intending to vote Conservative (majority party of government during the period), being undecided (aOR1.22 [1.13-1.33] <0.001), intending to vote Labour (aOR1.27 [1.16-1.36] <0.001), to vote "Other" (aOR1.54 [1.37-1.72] <0.001), or not to vote (aOR1.93 [1.77-2.11] <0.001) was associated with higher odds of current relative to never smoking rates. Intending to vote for the Liberal Democrats was associated with a significant lower odds of current smoking prevalence (aOR0.80 [0.70-0.91] <0.001) compared with intending to vote Conservative. CONCLUSIONS: Controlling for a range of other factors, current as compared with never-smokers appear more likely to intend not to vote, to be undecided, to vote for Labour or a non-mainstream party, and less likely to vote for the Liberal Democrats, compared with the Conservative party.

Age and gender differences in the reciprocal relationship between social connectedness and mental health.

PURPOSE: To examine (i) reciprocal longitudinal associations between social connectedness and mental health, and (ii) how these associations vary by age and gender. METHODS: Three waves of nationally representative data were drawn from the HILDA survey (n = 11,523; 46% men). The five-item Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) assessed symptoms of depression and anxiety. The Australian Community Participation Questionnaire provided measures of informal social connectedness, civic engagement and political participation. Multivariable adjusted cross-lagged panel regression models with random intercepts estimated bidirectional within-person associations between mental health and each of the three types of social connectedness. Multi-group analyses were used to quantify differences between men and women, and between three broad age groups (ages: 15-30; 31-50; 51+). RESULTS: Reliable cross-lagged associations between prior informal social connections and future mental health were only evident among adults aged 50 years and older (B = 0.101, 95% CI 0.04, 0.16). Overall, there was no significant association between prior civic engagement and improvements in mental health (p = 0.213) though there was weak evidence of an association for men (B = 0.051, 95% CI 0.01, 0.09). Similarly, there was no significant association in the overall sample between political participation and improvements for mental health (p = 0.337), though there was weak evidence that political participation was associated with a decline in mental health for women (B = - 0.045, CI - 0.09, 0.00) and those aged 31-50 (B = - 0.057, CI - 0.10, - 0.01). Conversely, prior mental health was associated with future informal social connectedness, civic engagement, and political participation. CONCLUSION: Interventions promoting social connectedness to improve community mental health need to account for age- and gender-specific patterns, and recognise that poor mental health is a barrier to social participation.

Challenges, Extent of Involvement, and the Impact of Nurses' Involvement in Politics and Policy Making in in Last Two Decades: An Integrative Review.

PURPOSE: To determine nurses' challenges, extent of involvement, and the impact of involvement in politics and policy making. ORGANIZING CONSTRUCT: Nurses in politics and health policy making. METHODS: Literature was searched in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), OVID, and Open Grey using phrases comprising the following key words: "nurses", "policy making", "politics", "health policy", "nurses involvement in policy making/politics/health policy", "nurses challenges in policy making/politics/policy", and "impact of nursing policy making/politics/health policy"; 22 articles published from January 2000 to May 2019 were included. FINDINGS: The major challenges included intra- and interprofessional power dynamics, marginalization of nurses in policy making, and nursing profession-specific challenges. The extent of involvement was inadequate, and nurses mainly worked as policy implementers rather than as policy developers. Those nurses who participated in policy development focused on health promotion to build healthy communities and to empower nurses and the nursing profession. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses' involvement in policy making has not improved over time. Nursing institutions and regulatory bodies should prepare and encourage nurses to work as policymakers rather than implementers and advocate for the rightful place of nurses at policy-making forums. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Preparation for health system policy making starts in the clinical settings. Educational institutions and nurse leaders should adequately prepare nurses for policy making, and nurses should participate in policy making at the organization, system, and national levels.

Creative social media use and political participation in young people: The moderation and mediation role of online political expression.

INTRODUCTION: Educators and policymakers promote political participation in young people as a means to strengthen the legitimacy of democracy. Creative social media use has grown in popularity in the digital age; however, this creative usage still receives inadequate attention in the literature-particularly its association with political participation. METHOD: This study collected three-wave panel data from a sample of young people living in Hong Kong (56.9% male, mean age = 18.81, standard deviation = 2.70) and used cross-lagged structural equation modeling to evaluate the mediating and moderating roles of online political expression in the link between creative social media and political participation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that creative social media use positively predicted political participation indirectly by the full mediation of enhanced online political expression. Findings did not reveal the moderation role of online political expression in the link between creative use of social media and political participation. Findings make important theoretical contributions in the field linking social media usage to political engagement.

Social networks, mobility, and political participation: The potential for women's self-help groups to improve access and use of public entitlement schemes in India.

Women's self-help groups (SHGs) have increasingly been used as a vehicle for social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for service delivery. Although a growing body of literature shows evidence of positive impacts of SHGs on various measures of empowerment, our understanding of ways in which SHGs improve awareness and use of public services is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper first examines how SHG membership is associated with political participation, awareness, and use of government entitlement schemes. It further examines the effect of SHG membership on various measures of social networks and mobility. Using data collected in 2015 across five Indian states and matching methods to correct for endogeneity of SHG membership, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. We also find that SHG members are not only more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members, they are significantly more likely to avail of a greater number of public entitlement schemes. Additionally, SHG members have wider social networks and greater mobility as compared to non-members. Our results suggest that SHGs have the potential to increase their members' ability to hold public entities accountable and demand what is rightfully theirs. An important insight, however, is that the SHGs themselves cannot be expected to increase knowledge of public entitlement schemes in absence of a deliberate effort to do so by an external agency.

The long shadow: Social mobility and political participation in urban China, 2006-2012.

Using a diagonal reference model to analyze data from three waves of Chinese General Social Surveys conducted between 2006 and 2012, we examine how social mobility affects political participation in urban China. We classify political participation into three main categories: voting participation (grassroots elections in the People's Congress and neighborhood committees); voluntary participation (civic activities in social organizations and NGOs); and mixed participation (activities in state corporatism organizations). Our findings demonstrate that there is an asymmetry effect of social mobility in voluntary participation in which the upwardly mobile tend to adapt more to their destinations, while the downwardly mobile tend to adhere more to their origins. But in both voting and mixed participation, political behaviors are more influenced by destination effect. These findings suggest that despite increased civic engagement in NGOs and nonprofit organizations as a mode of voluntary participation, identification with the party apparatus still remains an important factor in explaining the political behaviors of the upwardly mobile in China. When people rise in class status, they tend to be more politically conservative and to build alliances with state agencies by participating in party-sponsored political initiatives.

Who crosses the norms? Predictors of the readiness for non-normative political participation among adolescents.

This study investigated whether adolescents' readiness for non-normative political participation (i.e., readiness to confront social rules for political reasons) was predicted by their interpersonal problems (with parents, teachers, and classmates), low optimism, and political beliefs (political self-efficacy and distrust in public institutions). A structural equation model using two-wave longitudinal data from Czech high school students (N = 768; 54% females; age range at T1 = 14-17, M = 15.97; T2 data collected 1.5 years later) showed that the changes in adolescents' readiness for non-normative participation were predicted by their lower institutional trust. Interpersonal relationships or optimism had no cross-sectional or longitudinal effect on the readiness for non-normative participation. These results suggest that the main source of adolescents' readiness for non-normative political actions lies in their political beliefs, while the effect of adolescents' interpersonal problems is less clear.