Longitudinal effects of egoistic and fraternal relative deprivation on well-being and protest.

According to the social justice literature, fraternal relative deprivation causes protest, but has little impact on well-being. We consider this view incomplete and predict that fraternal relative deprivation can impair well-being if it is enduring and difficult to ameliorate. As part of a longitudinal study of the German unification process, measures of egoistic relative deprivation, fraternal relative deprivation, life satisfaction, mental health, and protest were obtained on three occasions of measurement (1996, 1998, 2000) from a demographically heterogeneous sample of 1276 East German citizens. Model tests and parameter estimation were performed with LISREL. In line with our predictions, unique longitudinal effects of fraternal relative deprivation on well-being were identified. No longitudinal effect of fraternal relative deprivation on protest was identified.