A year before 2020 election, politics already stressing out Americans, polls reveal
More than half of American adults say the 2020 presidential election, still a year away, is a “significant source of stress” in their lives, a new survey reveals.
Of the 3,617 adults ages 18 and older surveyed, 56% “identified the 2020 presidential election as a significant stressor,” according to the 13th annual “Stress in America” report from the American Psychological Association.
Americans are even more stressed out by the cost of health care and the violent specter of mass shootings, according to the survey, conducted by Harris Poll from Aug. 1 to Sept. 3. But so much worry over the election this early is unusual, said Arthur C. Evans Jr., the APA’s chief executive officer.
“In 2016 when we first looked at this issue, it was 52%. Today, a year out, it is 56%,” said Evans. “So that in and of itself is significant that a year before the election we saw this increase, and in 2016 it was literally a couple of months before the election we had a lower number.”
Actually, Evans said, he expected the percentage would be even higher, given the current divided political climate, impeachment proceedings “and all this that’s going on.”
All that stress, Evans said, can lead to short-term problems, such as headaches and difficulty sleeping, but, more troubling, long-term effects, like heart attacks and mental health issues.
A separate poll supported the association’s findings. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll at the end of October found a “growing share of Americans feeling anxious and frustrated” about the presidential campaign.
“Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say they have been paying close attention, but the poll finds feelings of anxiety and frustration more concentrated among Democrats,” The Associated Press reported.
Donald Trump’s 50% disapproval rating
Bob Beatty, chairman of the political science department at Washburn University in Topeka, wasn’t surprised that Americans are stressed out over politics.
For one thing, “there was a fair amount of stress before the 2016 election, and I would argue that much of that probably never went away when you consider that, according to the aggregate of polls, Donald Trump has about a 50% disapproval rating,” Beatty said.
“And I’ve been up to Iowa 10 times looking at the Democratic presidential race and there’s excitement for many of the candidates. But also there is certainly worry because many Democrats really worry that Donald Trump will be reelected.
“So on one side we have polls that say over 50% of the people don’t approve. And then a lot of them are worried that he’d be reelected. So that 56% does seem to make sense. Obviously the bulk of those people, the vast majority are people who don’t like him and are worried they’re going to see him for another four years.”
It doesn’t surprise Beatty, either, that people are stressed out this far away from Election Day.
“Part of that is that both Donald Trump and the Democrats started their 2020 campaign very early,” Beatty said. “And that’s probably also one of the reasons that health care is at the top of the list because it’s been part of the campaign that’s already started.”
Stressed out over health care
The APA’s survey found more people stressed out by health care issues — 69% —and mass shootings — 71% — than politics.
“Among adults who experience stress about health care at least sometimes (47%), the cost of health care is the most commonly cited source of that stress (64%),” the report said.
Worry about mass shootings is on the rise, up to 71% from 62% last year.
“By demographic, Hispanic adults are most likely to say mass shootings are a significant source of stress (84%), followed by black (79%), Asian (77%), Native American (71%) and white (66%) adults,” the survey said.
“The numbers on mass shooting did surprise me somewhat,” said Evans. “Because we knew that people were affected by mass shootings, but I was really surprised by the proportion of people who said this was a significant source of stress. And that’s the way the question was asked.
“We know that 71% of the population is not directly affected by mass shootings … a lot of that is vicarious. Almost all of the population is watching and observing what’s happening with mass shootings, watching what’s happening on television.
“I think that 71% says this is significant source of stress really drives home the point that you don’t have to be a victim or the family member of a victim or even in the same community for these horrific events to have an impact on you and your stress level.”
Older Americans more chill than the young
What else is bothering us? Stress about climate change/global warming is up to 56% from 51% last year. Concerns about “widespread sexual harassment” rose to 45% from 39% last year.
Overall, Americans ranked themselves at the same stress level as last year — 4.9, with 10 being “a great deal of stress.”
Younger adults are more stressed than their elders, the report revealed. But at the same time, younger people are more likely than older Americans to seek help from a mental health professional, Evans said.
Gen Z — those younger than 24 according to Inc. — notched up the highest stress level at 5.8 on that 1 to 10 scale.
Gen Xers — ages 40 to 54 — landed at 5.5.
Millennials — ages 25 to 39, or what Inc. calls the “avocado toast” generation — clocked in at 5.4.
Baby boomers, the oldest of whom are 75, reported lower stress levels than the national average, coming in at 4.2 on the worry scale.
“One of the reasons we do the survey is because I think that a lot of people don’t recognize the impact that stress, particularly chronic stress, can have on us from a physiological, from a physical health standpoint,” said Evans.
“It manifests itself differently in different people. People can have headaches. They can have problems with their digestion. They can have sleep disturbances. And that can go both ways when we’re stressed. We can sleep too much or not enough. Same with eating disturbances where people might eat too much or not enough.
“But the thing we worry most about is the long-term impact of stress. We know that it’s related to cardiovascular disease. We know that long-term chronic stress is related certainly to mental health conditions. And so we’re concerned that when we have these high levels of stress that are unrelenting that it’s having an impact on people’s physical health as well as their mental health.”
A stress-free Thanksgiving
Most of the time, Evans said, we can manage our stress “and just move on with our lives. But sometimes we’re not, particularly when there are things that are chronic stressors.”
The survey shows, “different things stress people differently,” he said. “And so one of the things to be in touch with — what are the things that really stress you? … what really helps you? And then being very intentional about taking steps to mitigate the impact that stress is having in your life.”
Some stress is unavoidable. Like the elections, the stress-filled holidays loom. Evans suggested a couple of strategies for a stress-free Thanksgiving gathering where politics might be served up, too. The APA offers tips on its website about how to manage such divisive political conversations.
“One is to agree that folks aren’t going to talk about those things that they know are going to be very controversial and create tension, particularly if you know you have Uncle Bob coming who is a real strong liberal or a real strong conservative,” he said. “You can have that conversation beforehand, say, ‘We’re not going to go there this year.’
“If you decide that you want to go down that path, maybe focus more on what do you agree about as opposed to where the differences are. I think what happens is, a lot of times people actually agree on a lot of things. They might not always agree on how to get there; they may not agree on the framing. But they actually agree on a lot of things.
“I always call it the 80-20 rule: 80% of the things we probably agree on, it’s the 20% we argue about. I think if we reframe that to focus on the 80% that people really agree about, that may be one way you’re going to have that conversation. But the best thing, maybe, is just to try to avoid that altogether.”
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