WORCESTER, Mass. – With less than one week until America decides its next president, many people are likely feeling some election-related anxiety in the final stretch.

A poll from the American Psychological Association called "Stress in America 2024" found 69% of respondents rated the presidential election as a "significant stressor."

Matt Motta, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University’s School of Public Health, has also studied the topic and found older people tended to carry more election-related stress than their younger counterparts, contrary to what he had expected going into the public opinion research project.

“We found precisely the opposite. Older people tended to be more stressed out, and that made a lot of sense to us after we conducted this study,” Motta said. “Older people tend to pay more attention to politics.”

Motta himself, given his line of work, also spends a lot of time tracking what’s happening in politics. For voters who may only find themselves glued to the news and their social media feeds around election time, Motta has developed some strategies over time to help balance his life.

Although he studies politics for a living, he said he doesn’t want politics to make a living out of him.

“And that means that I need to be deliberate in the actions I take to make sure that I'm not consuming too much or too stressful political information,” Motta said. “I see this playing out with my friends, family, folks that we encounter on social media. I mean, it just seems like everybody who's paying attention to the election right now is really stressed out.”

Motta said it’s important to carve out time in your day which isn’t devoted to politics and in a close election, this could be important even after Election Day, when everyone is glued to their screens thinking a winner might be declared at any moment.

“Make sure you have time for yourself that you've devoted to just you,” Motta said. “I like to put my phone on airplane mode and throw on the Boston Celtics, for example. Another thing you can do is try to create curated social media feeds. Most social media programs are going to allow you to create lists of followers that may or may not post primarily about politics.”

For people who feel an anxiety based on a need to help make a difference this election cycle, however, Motta said it could be beneficial to hit the pavement or pick up the phone.

“If you are stressed out about the outcome, it might make you feel a little bit better to engage in some phone banking, to go door-to-door and knock on doors, or just get out and vote,” Motta said. “I think all of those things can help alleviate our anxiety.”

And while Motta’s research found older Americans are more likely to feel election-related stress, there’s still plenty of stress circulating on local college campuses.

“It has to happen, but I have so many other things happening, and that’s just one more thing on the pile,” said Alex Colwell, a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

“I think there’s definitely a lot of anxiety, I think a lot of people are really nervous and don’t want to have a certain candidate get elected,” said Nikolai Tan, also a WPI student. “I think a lot of people feel rights are at stake, especially a lot of marginalized communities.”