political attitudes
Definition
Political attitudes refers to an individual's ideological self-placement, support for authoritarian or democratic principles, and orientation toward political participation. In research with adolescents aged 16 to 21, these attitudes are treated as developmentally significant outcomes, given that late adolescence is a formative period during which young people are especially responsive to sociopolitical events. Future anxiety, characterized by pessimism and uncertainty about what lies ahead, showed its strongest association with increased support for democratic principles in a UK sample, while among young men specifically it was associated with a shift toward right-conservative ideological self-placement across both the UK and Greece. Cognitive reappraisal moderated several of these associations, attenuating the positive link between future anxiety and support for democratic principles while reversing the direction of the link with authoritarianism for youth high in this strategy.
Sources: Borghi et al. (2025)
Related Terms
- adolescence (1 shared article)
- emotion regulation (1 shared article)
- future anxiety (1 shared article)
- ideology (1 shared article)
Applications
Political Attitudes and Future Anxiety
Future anxiety, defined as feelings of pessimism and uncertainty about what the future holds, is positively associated with support for democratic principles among UK adolescents, with a standardized coefficient of beta = .29. This association was weaker among adolescents who scored high in cognitive reappraisal, suggesting that emotion regulation shapes how future anxiety translates into political orientation. In both the UK and Greek samples, future anxiety was also associated with higher levels of political participation.
Sources: Borghi et al. (2025)
Political Attitudes and Cognitive Reappraisal
Cognitive reappraisal, a strategy involving the constructive reinterpretation of emotion-eliciting situations, moderated the relationship between future anxiety and political attitudes in a sample of UK adolescents. For youth low in cognitive reappraisal, future anxiety was positively associated with authoritarianism, whereas this association became negative for those scoring high in the strategy. The association with support for democratic principles followed a parallel pattern, positive under low reappraisal and close to zero under high reappraisal.
Sources: Borghi et al. (2025)
Political Attitudes and Gender
Gender moderated the association between future anxiety and political attitudes in both UK and Greek adolescent samples. Only among young men was future anxiety associated with a shift toward right-conservative ideological self-classification and higher support for authoritarian principles, while these associations were not significant for young women.
Sources: Borghi et al. (2025)
