Mental Health & Politics

"Republicans Report Much Better Mental Health Than Others"

I am going to resist the urge to make a snarky remark about this Gallup survey that finds that Republicans are more likely than Democrats or independents to have excellent mental health. There is a substantive issue here--and the multivariate correlation analysis Gallup did suggests that Gallup found the results so amazing that they felt a need to figure out why.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43% of independents and 38% of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance, and education.

On page 3 of the report they show that when you correlate mental health against other variables, there are several factors that seem important:

The table shows that income, education, gender, church attendance, and being a Republican are significantly related to self-reported mental health -- each such relationship occurring even when the impact of the other variables is taken into account.

The numbers show that income is by far the most important correlation. Whining socialists may decide, "Of course. Rich people don't have any reason to have mental health problems." But more likely, people who are severely depressed are more likely to have trouble holding jobs. It is easy to see how mental healthy people will have higher incomes for that reason.

Church attendance is the next most significant factor. Perhaps depression makes it hard to get out of bed on Sunday morning--but I would also find it plausible that a serious faith--one serious enough to get you to church with some regularity--might be a contributing factor to mental health.

Education came in next, somewhat after church attendance. This doesn't surprise me, again, because people with serious mental health problems are less likely to be able to complete college.

Being a Republican comes just after education. Do people with mental health problems identify with being Democrats? It seems rather difficult to see how mental illness would prevent you from being a Republican.

The only other statistically significant factor was gender, but I can't figure out from the article whether men or women were more likely to be mentally healthy.