Exploring the Relationship between Support for Protest and Psychological Well-Being for Māori

As a colonised peoples, many Māori have engaged in various forms of political resistance. Accordingly, research suggests that socio-political consciousness, which will sometimes involve at least considering protest, is an increasingly important aspect of identifying as Māori. This paper draws on a large, nationally representative sample of Māori (N = 1,977) to examine the links between expressing support for political activism (“activism” being used here synonymously with 'protest') and well-being. Support for political activism includes merely contemplating protesting and voting to support Māori issues, as well as actually signing petitions. Well-being includes self-reported mental health via the Kessler-6 and subjective health. Results show that support for political activism was strongly associated with greater subjective psychological distress and lower subjective health, above and beyond the variance explained by exhaustive demographic factors. This research presents the first empirical data in New Zealand demonstrating the strength of this relationship, and provides a good starting point for further investigation