Dissertation

Daily Anticipatory Stress and Coping Across Adulthood During the 2018 U.S. Midterm Election

Zhu, Xianghe

2021

Overview

Elections have been associated with stress responses. Whereas previous research on election distress has focused on reacting to events that already happened, individuals may experience stress due to forecasting future stressors and respond to these forecasts by engaging in anticipatory coping processes. In addition, the levels of stress response associated with elections seem to vary for adults of different ages. The goal of the current study was to examine the within-person associations between daily stressors forecasting and negative affect in the context of an election, the effects of different anticipatory coping strategies, and age differences in these processes. As part of the 2018 U.S. Midterm ESCAPED (Election Stress Coping and Prevention Every Day) study (Smith & Neupert, 2021), 140 adults aged 19-86 (Mean = 35, SD = 11.53) in the U.S. were recruited for a 29-day daily diary study. Sixty-five (46%) of them self-identified as men, 73.7% had received four-year college education or higher; 77% self-identified as White and 16% self-identified as Black; 40% identified with the Democratic Party, 32% identified with the Republican Party, and 28% identified with a third party or did not identify with any political party. The participants provided a total of 1056 daily reports on days spanning October 15th – November 13th, with the midterm election day being November 6th, 2018. Results indicated that daily forecasts of election stressor contributed to daily negative affect experienced throughout the study days controlling for exposure, and that stagnantly dwelling on forecasted election stressors may exacerbate rather than reduce distress. No age differences were found with anticipatory stress response (i.e., forecasts-negative affect association) and the effects of anticipatory coping strategies, although the anticipatory stress response appeared to be more pronounced in individuals with a more conservative political ideology. Whether the null age differences are reflective of meaningful age invariance remains to be examined in future research. However, understanding the experiences of distress due to expecting future stressors and how individuals are responding to this anticipatory stress may have unique implications for managing election stress in adulthood.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Clinical psychology / Older people / Political parties / Political science / Presidential elections / Voter behavior
• ISBN: 9798522940836