Governance, Institutional Trust, and Mental Health: A Multilevel Perspective

Submission Deadline: 28 August 2026 View: 14 Submit to Special Issue

Guest Editors

Prof. Geiguen Shin

Email: geiguen@gmail.com

Affiliation: Department of Public Administration and Public Policy, Kookmin University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

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Research Interests: health  policy,  mental  health,  aging,  data-driven governance,   preventive strategies for neurodegenerative diseases and psychological well-being in aging societies

Prof. Sang Joon An

Email: neuroan@gmail.com

Affiliation: Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Gangneung, Republic of Korea

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Research Interests: cerebral hemorrhage, dementia, clinical psychiatry, neurocognitive disorder

Summary

Institutional trust plays a critical role in shaping psychological well-being, public compliance, and resilience across societies. In recent years, growing political polarization, declining confidence in public institutions, and structural inequalities have intensified concerns about how distrust affects mental health outcomes. At the same time, cross- national differences in cultural norms, governance structures, and institutional legitimacy suggest that the psychological consequences of trust and distrust are not uniform.

Understanding how societal and institutional contexts moderate the relationship between trust and mental health has therefore become an urgent interdisciplinary research priority.

This Special Issue aims to advance theory and empirical evidence on the multilevel linkages between institutional trust, cultural contexts, and mental health outcomes. We particularly encourage studies that integrate micro-level psychological mechanisms with macro-level institutional and normative frameworks using rigorous quantitative, experimental, or comparative approaches.

Suggested themes include:
- Institutional trust and psychological well-being
- Cultural moderation of trust–mental health relationships
- Cross-national and multilevel modeling approaches
- Trust in government, professionals, and science
- Institutional legitimacy and emotional security
- Governance, social resilience, and mental health policy
- Comparative institutional systems and public health outcomes

This Special Issue seeks to foster dialogue across public administration, political science, psychology, public health, and medical research.

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