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Ruiz

Research Paper:
Political Stress on Adolescence

Moises Ruiz

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C. Franklin

March 21, 2017

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INTRODUCTION

Politics are a subject that is considered taboo when socializing with other

individuals in a large group. After the 2016 elections politic have become a polarizing

issue causing division and strife between family member, friends and co-workers, the line

has been drawn in the sand and you are either red or blue. Society has now split in two

there is very little middle ground to stand on, but what has politics done to the youth?

How are children going into adolescence affect by what they hear from a multitude of

sources, be it: television, radio, social media and conversations? What has political

discord done to adolescent minds and emotions?

This paper will address the issue of political stress on todays adolescent, and how

it has affect them on an emotional level from the day of the election until today (5 months

after). The reason for this paper stems from post-election situation where a student

expressed his thoughts and fears about what had happened on election night, the fear of

the uncertainty of the future seemed to weigh very heavily on this 12 year old adolescent

boy, as he asked me what was going to happen tomorrow. I decided to further study how

politics have added stress on todays adolescent youth, seeing as the 2016 election cause

many adults to be divided and as a result be completely biased, rude and de-humanizing

to each other. The curiosity if how did the adolescent take the election? And how the

elections affect the youth on an emotional level, how did political stress change their

affective thoughts on life.

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Stress is a huge part of human development, it causes us to change surroundings,

ideas, thoughts and pushes us to continue to thrive. Without any stress we would not

evolve out civilization to better our life and the human condition. Stress causes us to get

up in the morning to go to work to make money to live a comfortable (or not so

comfortable) life, it drives us to do the possible and impossible. Stress in healthy doses

does wonders, but it overwhelming abundance it has show to harm our thoughts and our

physical bodies at the biological level. There are good kinds of stress called eustress

that are things that make you feel happy such as; rollercoaster ride, swimming or a cold

pint of beer. Then there are the bad stressors that are unnecessary but come into our lives

such as; bills, car accidents or family drama. Politics are a benign and neutral abstract,

but how we as humans perceive it has become very polarizing concept, it has become a

point of contention and divided friends, coworker and families. Politics like religion are

taboo and it is said they should not be discussed when socializing, we as humans have

given the concept of politics a power over us that has now back fired.

Politics. Stress. Adolescence. A trifecta of human created issues that affect the

lives of all it touches. How does the stress of politics affect todays youth? This subject

should interest all who have, are thinking of having, or work with, urban adolescent

individuals. Politics affect everyone in this country in one way shape or form as adults,

but adolescents are also affected by it as much as we would like to shield them from it.

With the advent of technology and social media adolescent are ever more exposed and

connected to many adult concepts and stressor that they may or may not be ready for.
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Knowing how politics affect them is part of the solution to guide them through difficult

and trying times like the 2016 presidential elections.

L I T E R AT U R E R E V I E W

Since the 2016 elections there has been not too many research done as it has just

recently passed six months ago, there was no direct studies that focused on the 2016

presidential election, however there was other studies that are related to politics, social

media and the psychological stress it may cause on adults or adolescent youth.

In the article How to Deal with Election Stress pointed out the connection

between political/social stress on to individuals reporting chronic stress as a direct result

of the election. According to many psychologists, the republican candidate has been a

particularly stressful aspect. His renouncement of political correctness, boasts of

grandeur, and promises to make America great again, have energized a base of

extremely loyal fans, but not without frightening many other Americans who see him as a

unique threat to our democracy (Cassibry, 2016). This article focused only on adults

who have been, or were seeking, professional therapy and how politics have factored into

individual thoughts of clients and individuals seeking help. In many cases clients or

patients were reporting experiencing symptoms of chronic stress. The American

Psychological Association (APA) added a question about the elections in its annual

Stress in America survey, it reported that 50% of those surveyed felt very to somewhat

stressed by the election (Cassibry, 2016). That means that half of the adults surveyed felt

that the 2016 election cause stress to somewhat stress, what does that say about our
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adolescent youth whom have no experience dealing with election stress or the 2016

election was their first dose of political stress?

At the end of the elections in an article Post-election stress is a big problem (and

not just for liberals) the Boston Globe reported that The National Suicide Prevention

Lifeline (and other hot line services) reported huge surges in calls for help (Sullivan,

2016). The survey showed that there was a huge volume of individuals reporting

emotional distress due to the presidential election, with one poll indicating that 90

percent of those saying theyve been stressed (Sullivan, 2016). What the survey does

not say if the participants age range, were they all adults? Or were they various ages

calling into the hotline, never the less the increase in calls affected many individuals, and

not just liberals.

Another factor in adolescent stress with politics is social media, during the

elections there was a plethora of political based posts and stories (many of which were in

fact fake news). Television has been the major factor in distracting adolescent, there are

recommendations done by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that limit the time

youth should watch television versus physical activity recommendation of less that 2

hours of non-educational programming per day (Strasburger, et al., 2011). Even though

there are recommendations youths are spending more than 7.5 hours/day using some

type of media (Rideout, Foehr & Roberts, 2005). However these rates did not factor in

usage of cell phones, music as media outlets.

Adolescent have a much more connection with internet and social web, This

generation is the first to have gone through their entire teen years with Facebook and
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other social networking sites at their fingertips (Boyd, 2007). Adolescent have an

additional stressor that is social media to contend with growing up in the 2010s. In

watching my own nephew grow up at the tender age of 2.5 years old he is aware of use of

our smartphones, he can unlock the phones and locate the YouTube app and begin to

watch his ka-toons. Nine out of ten (90%) 13-17 year-olds have used some form of

social media (Boyd, 2007), social media was defined in this study as: social networking

(such as Facebook), twitter, blogs and chatting online. With 90% of impressionable

adolescent on social media the recent election bombarded them (as did most of us) with

posts, meme and links to articles/stories related to politics, but many unfortunately are

not prepared to handle such a divisive election one in five says it makes them feel more

confident (20%) only 5% say using their social networking site makes them feel more

depressed (Boyd, 2007). Although this survey is about a decade old I feel the numbers

survey would be different following the 2106 elections.

Many of the studies and survey done were made years prior to the 2016 election

and they were not age specific where there were specific age ranges of those survey, or

they were done on other subject connected to politics, stress or social media factors. It

was hard to fine recent information, surveys, articles and scholarly articles that were age

specific to adolescence and focused on political or election stress. That is why the survey

conducted for this paper was done to survey those who went through the election process

of 2016 and experience the political ramifications of life in the Unites States in all its

ways, both positive and negative.

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METHODOLOGY

In this section this paper will show how and what was collected through a severe

using the Likert scale and various subjects with a age range from 13 to 17, and not gender

or race specific. This sample was of those surveyed was local to southern California and

regional to the Los Angeles county only. Those survey were primarily in the San Gabriel

Valley area and joining cities and were survey in the month of March 2017. Figure 1.1

and 1.2 (below) is the sample survey that was used to conduct the study for political

stress on
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ADOLESCENT SURVEY PART 1

Directions:
Think back to November 2016 and election night. Think about your thoughts, feelings
and the emotions you felt after the election results were in. How did you feel at that
moment? Please be as honest as possible with your responses.

Please read and rate the question/comments to the best of your abilities 1-5.
1. No fear or anger about the future.
2. Little fear/anger about the future.
3. Indifferent, felt neither fear or anger.
4. Some fear/anger or uncertainty of the future.
5. Very fearful/angry of the future.

Election Night November 2016. 1 2 3 4 5

How did you feel after learning who won the Presidency?

My feeling about our politicians in Congress.

My feeing about the Supreme Court.

Me feelings about our government overall.

My feelings about civil protections.

How did you believe your family felt?

My feelings about my rights being violated.

Did anti-government posts online change your opinion?

How did media coverage affect your feelings?

How did Social Media (Facebook) posts make you feel?

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Questions on the survey ranged form affective reactions to the 2016 elections, to

the overall feelings of the government and its ability to safe guard its citizens, and the

impact of social media on the perception of the elections. For the first part of the survey

subjects were asked to recall their feeling they experienced during the presidential

election and rate their feeling from that point in time (see Figure 1.1). Part two of the

survey focused on the subjects affective responses to their feelings about government and

social media now 5 months after the election (March 2017). For both parts subjects were

asked to rate their affective or emotional response to the election on a scale from 1-5, one

being no fear or anger about the election to 5 very fearful or angry about the future.

Figure 1.2
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ADOLESCENT SURVEY PART 2

Directions:
Think about now post-election and 3 months into the new Presidency. Think about your
thoughts, feelings and the emotions you feel today. How did you feel at this moment?
Has there been a change in feelings or thoughts? Please be as honest as possible with
your responses.

Please read and rate the question/comments to the best of your abilities 1-5.
1. No fear or anger.
2. Little fear/anger.
3. Indifferent, feel neither fear or anger.
4. Some fear/anger or uncertainty.
5. Very fearful or angry.

Post Election Today (March 2017) 1 2 3 4 5

My feeling about the President now.

My feeling about our politicians in Congress.

My feeing about the Supreme Court.

Me feelings about our government.

My feelings about civil protections.

How do you perceive your family feels now?

My feelings about my rights being violated.

Does anti-government posts online affect your opinion?

How does the media coverage affect your feelings?

How does Social Media (Facebook) posts make you feel?

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DATA & R E S U LT S

Eight participants completed and retuned the surveys, of those who participated

their ages ranged from 12-16 years old. There was no gender information gathered as

well as no ethnic background information asked, those surveyed live in the greater Los

Angeles area, mainly the San Gabriel Valley and adjoining cities. The figure (2.0) below

shows how the participants answered the question about political stress on adolescence.

Figure 2.0

PART A

1 2 3 4 5 Total

A 0% 25% 12% 25% 38% 100%

B 12% 0% 76% 12% 0% 100%

C 25% 0% 63% 12% 0% 100%

D 12% 25% 25% 38% 0% 100%

E 12% 25% 39% 12% 12% 100%

F 24% 0% 0% 38% 38% 100%

G 12% 25% 12% 39% 12% 100%

H 25% 0% 38% 25% 12% 100%

I 25% 12% 39% 12% 12% 100%

J 25% 0% 50% 25% 0% 100%

PART B

1 2 3 4 5 Total

A 0% 38% 0% 12% 50% 100%

B 12% 0% 25% 63% 0% 100%

C 24% 0% 38% 38% 0% 100%

D 12% 50% 0% 38% 0% 100%

E 12% 12% 50% 26% 0% 100%

F 0% 0% 0% 63% 37% 100%

G 26% 0% 12% 50% 12% 100%

H 39% 12% 25% 12% 12% 100%

I 12% 26% 50% 12% 0% 100%

J 38% 12% 38% 12% 0% 100%

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Election Night November 2016 (part A, question A), the survey indicted that 38%

were fearful and/or angry at the results of the election, 63% of them had a negative

feeling towards the outcome of the presidential race, with only 12% neutral feeling and a

quarter having some fear about the future. Participants feeling about Congress (b) was

neutral with 76% of those surveyed indicating that they were indifferent, similarly with

the Supreme Court (c) at 63% neutral feelings about them. 3 out of 8 surveyed also felt

some fear about government overall (d), and 39% indifferent about civil protections (e).

When asked about the perception their families might of felt (f) 76% of them had a

negative fearful reaction to the election, but about a quarter of them felt no fear perceived

from their families. Question G asked about personal rights violations with 51% having a

negative/fearful reaction, and 37% having little fear of possible personal violations.

Questions H, I and J focused mostly on media coverage such as TV or radio and

social media that included online posts. 38% surveyed indicated that they were neutral

when it came to anti-government posts, 37% had a negative reactions and only a quarter

(25%) felt there was no reaction to online posts. When it comes to perceived media

coverage 39% indicated a neutral or indifferent affect, but 37% had very little fear about

the coverage the election through the media. 50% of participants indicated that the social

media posts had a neutral affect on them (j) during the election, but a quarter of those

surveyed had either some fear or no fear.

Post-election results (March 2017) five month after the election outcome, those

surveyed were asked to rate their feelings (see Fig. 2.0, part B). Question A, asked about

participants feelings about the current president, 50% felt very fearful/angry, but a total
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of 62% still reported a negative feeling. However there was no neutral or indifferent

feelings about the president and only 38% felt little fear or anger. 63% felt some fear

about the politicians in Congress (b), and 38% are neural about the Supreme Court (c)and

another 38% had little fear about them. 62% said they had little to no fear or anger about

the government, with none having a neutral feeling. Half of the participants are

indifferent about civil protections (e), with a quarter on either side feeling some fear or

little to no fear about it. Question f asked about perceptions of their families were

feeling now, 63% had some fear and 37% were still in fear about the election outcome,

with 0% having little to no fear. 62% of the surveyed indicated some fear and fear when it

came to personal rights violations with only 12% neutral and about a quarter having no

fear.

The last three sections questions H, I and J were about online posts, media

coverage and online social media. Does anti-government post online affect opinions (h)?

38% indicted that they had little to no fear, 25% are indifferent and 24% are fearful to

some degree. In regards to media coverage affecting feelings (i), 50% were indifferent or

neutral, while 38% had little to no fear about the coverage. Social media posts (j)made

38% participants feel indifferent/neutral, versus 50% feel little to no fear, and only 12%

are fearful from social media post.

A NA LY S I S

The answer to the question if issue of political stress on todays adolescent has

affect them on an emotional level from the day of the election until today (5 months after)

is yes 63% of the adolescent surveyed had a negative fearful or angry feeling about the
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election results from 2016, and 62% still feel very much the same way 5 months after the

election and 3 months in the new president. However when the questions about congress

and SOCTUS most of the participants had an indifferent feeling about those branches of

government 76% and 63% respectively were neutral. The expectation of such as number

was quite interesting, but understandable seeing as the main focus of the recent political

upheaval is the executive branch, most adolescent have no feeling either way.

Question F dealt with perceived feeling of the participants familys feeling about

politics those answers were much more defined, it was rather interesting how the

percentages shifted from post-election until now. About three quarters of the surveyed

indicated their families had negative fearful feeling about the election and only 25% had

no fear, but 5 months later the numbers shifted over to 63% some fear and 37% fearful of

the political climate in the government, there was no neutral feelings all of the indicators

were negatively affected of how adolescents perceived their families feelings. The recent

election has scared many people, and the participants have picked up on that fear through

their very own family member. I know for a fact that 2 of the participants surveyed

parents are here on a visa or green card and only one parent of the two is a permanent

resident, and this election had frighten their parents and subsequently their children.

Personal rights violations was another point where those surveyed 51% felt

fearful of rights violations post-election which five months later that number jumped to

62% having some fear or fearful of rights violations. Adolescent who have not

experienced any election until this one have had a rude awakening, I haven't been able to

recall an election so chaotic such as the 2016 one. Those who first experience in politics
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and/or election have had a adverse and fearful reaction to the election process, which is

not entirely fair, but the political landscape has very much changed. Adolescents going

through a Identity vs. Role Confusion (Erikson, 1988) may find it difficult to see the

turmoil and reconcile their own personal value and belief system.

The final factor address in the paper was the role of media including on-line social

media factors that played into the political firestorm of the recent election. 39% of

participants felt indifferent when it came to media coverage of the election, many like

myself did not pay too much attention to the overwhelming reports and stories related to

the election. Of those surveyed 37% felt they had little to no fear with media coverage, I

believe this can be due to the fact that many adolescent don't get their news through

regular TV and network TV like adults do. When it came to social media posts during the

election 50% of youths felt indifferent to the post online, which can be a good thing that

they do not automatically believe everything they see posted on Facebook (or other app).

The percentages shifted over 5 months afterwards, with almost 4 in 10 feeling indifferent

and 38% having no fear about the social media posts. This show that participants no

longer fear social media posts that they may come across, which maybe a consequence of

the overflow in stories (fake or real) that they have become indifferent to online posts.

One addition that I would of like to have added to the survey categories was: age

range, gender, ethnicity and SES level. The addition of this information could of

correlated with my information, who took the survey and how they answered the

questions. This would of added more of a connection between political stressors and

individuals background and how they perceived threats, idea and concepts.
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Sullivan, J. (2016). Post-election stress is a big problem (and not just for liberals):
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