Abstract
This study explored adolescents’ daily political stress during the 2024 US election and how proximal and distal factors shaped stress. Participants completed surveys for 20 consecutive days before, during, and after the election. At baseline, they reported perceptions of peer and family election-related experiences and anticipated election impact. Daily surveys captured their daily political stress and election-related exposure. The final sample included 445 daily observations reported by 36 adolescents (aged 13–18, M = 15.61, SD = 1.23) who were mostly white, female, and Democrats. Participants reported significant daily fluctuations in political stress and greater political stress on days when they experienced more frequent election exposure, regardless of their anticipated election impact. On days with little election exposure, participants reported little to no political stress; however, on days with high exposure, participants who anticipated greater election impacts reported significantly more political stress than those who anticipated low impacts. Daily political stress positively related to participants’ election investment compared to their peers; otherwise, perceptions of family and peer election-related experiences did not shape their political stress. Implications encourage adolescents’ use of anticipatory coping strategies such as limiting their election-related exposure when feeling overwhelmed.
Public Significance Statement
Adolescents (primarily white, female, and Democrats) in a swing state experienced political stress during the 2024 US election. Daily exposure to the election and anticipating greater impacts of the election heightened participants’ daily political stress.