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The Association Between Right-Wing Political Ideology and Youth Distress

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Abstract

The study examines the association between ideological worldviews among youth and the sense of distress resulting from political events. It examines two hypotheses: the first is that events that contradict ideological worldviews are associated with greater distress levels and the second is that the higher the level of ideological commitment, the higher the distress level will be, regardless of the type of stressor. Therefore this study examines distress levels among right-wing adolescents exposed to two different political stressors: (a) Palestinian terror—which matches their right-wing ideology that regards the Palestinians as an enemy, and (b) the evacuation of settlements—which contradicts their right-wing ideology. As expected, higher distress levels were found during evacuation of settlements, compared to the response to Palestinian terror. It was also found that ideological commitment was positively associated with levels of distress with regard to both stressors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Behavioral Sciences, Social Science, Netanya Academic College, 1 University St. Kiryat Itzhak Rabin, Netanya, 42365, Israel

    Avital Laufer

  2. Department of Criminology, Ariel University Center of Samaria, Ariel, Israel

    Mally Shechory

  3. Department of Criminology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel

    Mally Shechory

  4. Bob Shapell School of Social Work, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Zahava Solomon

Authors
  1. Avital Laufer
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  2. Mally Shechory
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  3. Zahava Solomon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Avital Laufer.

Additional information

The study was supported by the R&D Center—Samaria & Jordan Rift and by the Adler Research Center, Tel Aviv University.

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Laufer, A., Shechory, M. & Solomon, Z. The Association Between Right-Wing Political Ideology and Youth Distress. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 26, 1–13 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-008-0135-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-008-0135-z

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