Introduction: The American Psychological Association's national surveys have revealed high levels of stress surrounding the political climate since the 2016 United States (U.S.) presidential election. The two current studies aimed to further evaluate the impact of political factors, such as social and economic conservatism and political party affiliation mismatch between individuals and their local or federal officials, on emotional experiences. Methods: Data for these studies were collected through Amazon's Mechanical Turk following the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections. Results: Results from Study 1 revealed that following the 2016 presidential election, higher social and economic conservatism was associated with less political obsessions and lower levels of depression. Results from Study 2 also demonstrated that following the 2018 midterm elections, higher conservatism predicted lower depression, less political obsessions, lower levels of negative affect, and higher positive affect. Additionally, conservatism moderated the relationship between party affiliation mismatch between participants and their official in the U.S. House of Representatives and both anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The relationship between mismatch of party affiliation for participants’ Senators and obsessive-compulsive symptoms was also moderated by conservatism. Discussion: These studies suggest that political factors, particularly conservatism, may impact emotional experiences and mental health symptoms during times of increased political polarization. Future studies should further explore the impact of political divisiveness on individual's stress levels and emotional well-being.

中文翻译：

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重大选举期间保守主义和民选党代表对心理健康结果的影响

简介：美国心理学会的全国调查显示，自 2016 年美国（美国）总统大选以来，围绕政治气候的压力很大。目前的两项研究旨在进一步评估政治因素对情感体验的影响，例如社会和经济保守主义以及个人与其地方或联邦官员之间的政党归属不匹配。方法：这些研究的数据是在 2016 年和 2018 年美国大选后通过亚马逊的 Mechanical Turk 收集的。结果：研究 1 的结果显示，在 2016 年总统大选之后，较高的社会和经济保守主义与较少的政治痴迷和较低的抑郁水平相关。研究 2 的结果还表明，在 2018 年中期选举之后，更高的保守主义预示着更低的抑郁、更少的政治痴迷、更低水平的负面影响和更高的积极影响。此外，保守主义缓和了参与者与美国众议院官员之间的党派不匹配以及焦虑和强迫症状之间的关系。保守主义也缓和了参与者的参议员党派不匹配与强迫症状之间的关系。讨论：这些研究表明，在政治两极分化加剧的时期，政治因素，尤其是保守主义，可能会影响情绪体验和心理健康症状。