Trajectories of sociopolitical stress during the 2020 United States presidential election season: Associations with psychological well-being, civic action, and social identities

Sara Suzuki; Lindsay Till Hoyt; Neshat Yazdani; Mariah Kornbluh; Elan C Hope; Melissa J Hagan; Alison K Cohen; Parissa J Ballard

doi:10.1016/j.cpnec.2023.100218

Trajectories of sociopolitical stress during the 2020 United States presidential election season: Associations with psychological well-being, civic action, and social identities

Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2023 Oct 31:16:100218. doi: 10.1016/j.cpnec.2023.100218. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Authors

Sara Suzuki¹, Lindsay Till Hoyt², Neshat Yazdani², Mariah Kornbluh³, Elan C Hope⁴, Melissa J Hagan⁵, Alison K Cohen⁶, Parissa J Ballard⁷

Affiliations

¹ CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement), Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University, 419 Boston Avenue, Medford, 02155, MA, United States.
² Fordham University, 441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, 10458, NY, United States.
³ University of Oregon, 1585 East 13th Avenue, Eugene, 97403, OR, United States.
⁴ Policy Research Associates, Inc., 433 River Street, Suite 1005, Troy, NY, 12180 United States.
⁵ San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, 94132, CA, United States.
⁶ University of California, San Francisco, 550 16th Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, 94158, CA, United States.
⁷ Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 475 Vine Street, Winston-Salem, 27101, NC, United States.

Abstract

Sociopolitical stress arises in reaction to awareness of, exposure to, and/or involvement in political events. Among a longitudinal cohort of 628 college students from 10 universities across the U.S., we explored trajectories of sociopolitical stress during the 2020 United States presidential election season and examined relationships to psychological well-being. Growth mixture modeling classified our sample into four subgroups each with distinct trajectories of sociopolitical stress: High and Decreasing, Moderate and Increasing, Consistently Low, and High-to-Low. Participants with lower levels of sociopolitical stress expressed higher psychological well-being (high flourishing, high optimism, low anxiety symptoms, low depressive symptoms). The High and Decreasing subgroup was associated with the highest levels of civic action. Participants in the High and Decreasing trajectory were 20 times more likely to identify as LGBQ+, and 4 times more likely to be a woman or a transgender/gender diverse student, compared to participants in the Consistently Low subgroup.

Keywords: Civic engagement; College students; Elections; Growth mixture modeling; Sociopolitical stress; Voting.