Sociopolitical control and empowerment: An extended replication

Although much of the empowerment research and literature deals with the individual in his immediate environment, there is clearly a branch that focusses more on the wider community and sociopolitical empowerment. Zimmerman and Zahniser (1991) developed an integrative measure of sociopolitical control containing two indices - Leadership Competence and Political Control, and they reported three tests of their measure. This study reports the use of the measure, as well as the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale (Bradburn, 1969) and a measure developed for measuring a sense of Community Belonging. The Pearson correlations for these measures were compared with Pearson correlations for measures of participation and decision-making for two similar groups of activists in the same community; one group had been active for two years longer than the second group. The comparison shows statistically significant differences between the two groups. Not only are the sociopolitical control indices of Zimmerman and Zahniser found to be effective, but they and other community empowerment measures are shown to be sensitive to the passing of time and accumulation of experience.