Sociopolitical control and empowerment: An extended replication

Although much of the empowerment research and literature deals with the ind ividual in his immediate environment, there is clearly a branch that focuss es more on the wider community and sociopolitical empowerment. Zimmerman an d Zahniser (1991) developed an integrative measure of sociopolitical contro l containing two indices-leadership Competence and Political Control, and t hey reported three tests of their measure. This study reports the use of th e measure, as well as the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale (Bradburn, 1969) an d a measure developed for measuring a sense of Community Belonging. The Pea rson correlations for these measures were compared with Pearson correlation s 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 significa nt differences between the two groups. Not only are the sociopolitical cont rol indices of Zimmerman and Zahniser found to be effective, but they and o ther community empowerment measures are shown, to be sensitive to the passi ng of time and accumulation of experience. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.