Low Political Trust, Poorer Mental Health? Resilience as a Protective Factor

Democratic governance relies not only on institutional performance but also on citizens’ subjective sense of security and predictability in the political environment. When political trust erodes, politics may become a chronic stressor rather than a source of order, potentially related to worse mental health. Yet individuals differ in their capacity to cope with uncertainty and strain. This paper examines how political trust is associated with mental health in the general population and whether psychological resilience moderates this relationship. The main expectation is that resilience functions as a compensatory resource: mental health disparities linked to low political trust should be most pronounced among individuals with low resilience. We use Wave 1 of the Czech Attitude Barometer (CAB), a nationally representative survey conducted in June–July 2024 using a multistage stratified random sampling design (final sample N = 1,705, ages 15+). Political trust is measured as an averaged scale capturing trust in key political institutions and actors (e.g., government, parliament, president, constitutional court, political parties, army; α = .89). Resilience is assessed using the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS; α = .87), capturing the ability to “bounce back” from stress. Mental health is operationalized via the PHQ-4 (α = .84), a validated screening measure of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Ordinary least squares regression models adjust for core sociodemographic correlates of mental health (age, gender, education, subjective income, marital status, and place of residence). To assess moderation, models include an interaction between political trust and resilience. Results show that higher political trust and higher resilience are each associated with better mental health. The interaction term is statistically significant and negative, indicating that increases in political trust are most strongly associated with better mental health among individuals with low resilience, while the incremental association is weaker among highly resilient respondents. At the same time, high-resilience individuals report comparatively better mental health across all levels of political trust, consistent with resilience as a broadly protective factor. These findings contribute to research on the societal determinants of well-being by linking trust in political institutions to mental health in a contemporary Central-Eastern European democracy using robust nationally representative data. While the cross-sectional design does not allow for causal claims, the results highlight a potentially important intersection between democratic legitimacy and public health by showing that low political trust is related to poorer mental health particularly among individuals with limited coping resources.