Young Adults Disparate Experiences of Elections and Civic Engagement: How does Sociopolitical Stress get under the Skin?

Abstract

Macro-level sociopolitical events, such as elections, may differentially affect youth’s day-to-day functioning depending on their social positions, identities, and experiences. In a set of studies of young adult college students across the USA, we explored psychological and physiological responses to the 2016 presidential election (Study 1) and trajectories of sociopolitical stress and civic engagement during the 2020 election (Study 2). Study 1 included salivary cortisol and daily diary data from 286 students (M=20.24 years; 73% women; 56% white) from two universities collected on consecutive days before/during/after the 2016 election. Study 2 included three waves of self-report survey data from 588 students (Mage =20.24; 72% women; 68% white) from ten universities in fall 2020. Piecewise trajectory analyses for Study 1 revealed that different facets of a young person’s identity (e.g., political preference, gender, race/ethnicity) moderated trajectories of mood and diurnal cortisol during election week. For example, youth who disapproved of President Trump showed significant increase in bedtime cortisol after he won the election (b=0.21, p<.05). In Study 2, growth mixture modeling pointed to four profiles of sociopolitical stress over the election period (i.e., high, high/decreasing, medium/increasing, low). Youth in the “low” profile were more likely to identify as white, heterosexual, and male, and reported the lowest levels of civic action. Integrating key findings from both studies with theories from developmental science and psychoneuroendocrinology, we suggest a framework to study mechanisms between sociopolitical stress and civic engagement in the 2024 election.