"Heated, Polarized, and Annoying": The Characteristics and Consequences of Affective Polarization in Elite High Schools

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Six
  In Roundtable Session: Racialized Contexts of Urban Schooling: Discipline, Disparities, and Data (Table 13)

Abstract

Affective political polarization, or identity-based animosity across political groups, has heightened in recent decades, yet we know little about how youth experience such polarization in schools and how it may affect their political socialization. Drawing on qualitative school climate surveys from nine elite independent schools, this paper explores the characteristics and consequences of affective polarization for adolescents. Students’ reports of a polarized political climate marked by partisan hostility increase by grade level of students. Further, students report the costs of affective polarization on their peer interactions in the school environment, including threats to social status, lost relationships, and the inability to speak across political differences. These findings characterize youth political socialization as informed by affective polarization at school.

Authors

• Nora Gross, Barnard College
  Presenting Author

• Ellen Bryer, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Charlotte E Jacobs, University of Pennsylvania
  Presenting Author

• Jarvis Goosby, Boston College
  Non-Presenting Author