Feeling Trumped: Do Political Actions Have an Effect on Stress Levels?

Abstract

I have conducted research on the connection between political party affiliation and the amount of stress that stems from political actions. I also questioned the connection between politically-rooted stress and activism. Next, I asked if individuals feel discriminated against due to their political party affiliation. Finally, I questioned the connection between levels of activism and locus of control. I constructed an online survey that was completed by 138 participants, of which 63 reported being Democrat, 42 Republican, and 33 Independent. Participants were first asked their political party affiliation and their political leaning. This was followed by the Digital Activism Scale and the Psychological Political Engagement scale (De Marco, Robles, & Antino, 2017). Next was the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (Shirom-Melamed, 2011), and the Short Stress Overload Scale (Amirkhan, 2016). Following was the Internal, Powerful Others, and Chance Locus of Control Scale (Levenson & Miller, 1976), and the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire (Contrada et al., 2001), which was modified to ask about politically-related discrimination. The survey ended with demographic questions. A combination of one-way ANOVA and correlational' tests were used to analyze the data. Analysis showed that Republicans were significantly lower on measures of burnout and stress than Democrats and Independents. When correlating activism with burnout and stress, results showed that Republicans have the strongest correlation between activism and burnout, but Democrats have a stronger correlation between activism and stress. When looking at discrimination based on political party, Democrats faced significantly more devaluing comments than Republicans did. The correlation between activism and locus of control revealed that Democrats had a more significant connection for both internal and external locus. These findings suggest that there is a significant connection between activism and stress. It is also important that we can find a way to de-stress from activism, as well as sharing ideas to decrease burnout. Above all, there needs to be less a political divide between the two parties.