Stressful Politics? How Perceiving Politics as a Stressor Impacts Mental Health. Evidence from Britain and the United States

This paper seeks to understand whether and how perceiving politics as a stressor impacts mental health. We rely on three original panel survey datasets from adults (Britain) and young people (Britain and the United States). We find that perceiving politics as more stressful is associated with greater symptoms of depression independently of general stress and exposure to politics, and longitudinally. We find that this relationship is particularly pronounced for those reporting no diagnosis of a mental health problem, who pay more attention to politics, who are low in emotional cognitive control, and who display more negative emotional biases. Lastly, we find that experiential avoidance and two components of rumination (brooding and reflective pondering), which are known risk factors for depression, mediate the association between stressful politics and depression. In summary, this study identifies the psycho-political factors that may harm or protect mental health from stressful politics.