Parsons, Sam;
Wiggins, Richard D;
(2024)
Changing trust in the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic: influences of country, generation and previous voting
behaviour.
(CLS Working Paper
2024/2).
Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Social Research Institute: London, UK.
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Abstract
This paper compares self-reported trust in the British Conservative government and an evaluation of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, over three time-points between May 2020 – February 2021, for two birth cohort studies, representing ‘baby boomers’ (sixty-something’s) and ‘Generation X’ (fifty-something’s). Our two outcomes are examined in the context of socio-demographic status, living arrangements, labour market position, social contact, expressions of loneliness, vaccine hesitancy, political attachment to the Conservative party and country of residence (England, Wales and Scotland) using regression models which condition on prior trust scores. In the early waves political attachment has a strong relationship with trust until the negative influence of vaccine hesitancy is included in the final wave model for both cohorts. For Generation X a country difference persists for people living in Scotland (vs. England and Wales). Amongst baby boomers, women are more positive than men and graduates are more negative in their expression of trust in government, but these differences are not found for Generation X. When it comes to the government’s handling of the pandemic the cohorts are similar in two key respects: the positive influence of political attachment to the Conservatives and negative association of graduate status. Vaccine hesitancy results in a negative influence amongst baby boomers but not for Generation X. In conclusion, trust in government and the government’s handling of the pandemic are not independent of political orientation or graduate status. Sex, vaccine reluctance and country of residence nuance our conclusions and warrant further investigation.
| Type: | Working / discussion paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Changing trust in the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic: influences of country, generation and previous voting behaviour |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/C... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Trust, tVoting, Country, Longitudinal |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10191557 |
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