Abstract
This study considers the impact of social support upon the psychological empowerment of community activists. Although it has been clearly shown that the human and personal resources that individual activists bring to their voluntary activity and the inputs of the agencies and associations in which they are active both contribute to the activists' empowerment, little research has considered the effect of the support given by family, friends, and significant others. One hundred twentyβtwo community activists in the lower socioeconomic neighborhoods of a city in the center of Israel filled in questionnaires at the conclusion of a year's training program. The questionnaires included scales of social support (family and friends), satisfaction with the course (practical and learning), leadership competence, policy control, selfβesteem, and mastery. The variables were of importance in their contribution to leadership competence and policy control, but in different ways. Both forms of satisfaction from the course, selfβesteem, and family support, contributed to leadership competence, while both mastery and selfβesteem, and the support of friends contributed to policy control. The differences between leadership competence and policy control are discussed in the light of these findings. Β© 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 31: 371β381, 2003.