How Your Childhood Shapes Your Voice in the World

Have you ever felt like people like you don't have a say in what the government does? Researchers asked this exact question to over 200,000 adults across 22 countries, and then looked back at their childhoods to see what might explain the differences. They studied things like family relationships, financial comfort, health, religious attendance, and even painful experiences like abuse or feeling like an outsider — all before age 12.

While a supportive childhood builds political confidence, early adversity can also become a powerful catalyst for action.

What they found is fascinating. People who had a good relationship with their mother or father growing up tended to report slightly more political voice — meaning they felt they could influence government — compared to people who had a poor relationship with a parent. Growing up in a financially comfortable household also went along with higher political voice. And people who attended religious services as kids tended to report more political voice later in life, regardless of how often they went.

But here's something unexpected: on average across all 22 countries, people who experienced childhood abuse or felt like outsiders actually reported slightly *more* political voice, not less. The researchers think that in some societies, hardship might push people to speak up and demand change. However, this wasn't true everywhere. In countries like Egypt, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, and Spain, childhood abuse went along with *lower* political voice. And in Germany, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania, feeling like an outsider was also linked to less political voice.

Women, on average, reported lower political voice than men across most countries. The big takeaway? The roots of whether you feel heard in society might stretch all the way back to childhood — but the story changes depending on where you grew up.