LOS ANGELES – Young Californians who identify themselves as Republicans are less likely to follow social distancing guidelines that prevent coronavirus transmission than those who identify as Democrats or Independents, according to USC study published Monday.
The findings among 18- to 25-year-olds mirror what many have observed about America’s politicized response to COVID-19 and are a source of concern for public health experts dealing with a surge of cases nationwide, according to Adam Leventhal, director of the USC Institute for Addiction Science.
As of Friday, the United States was averaging 207,000 new cases and 2,319 deaths per day.
“You might expect middle-aged or older adults to have established ideologies that affect their health behavior, but to see it in young adults who have historically been less politically inclined is unexpected,” Leventhal said. “Regardless of age, we would never hope to find results like this. Public health practices should not correlate with politics.”
The study was conducted during the summer via an online survey that was completed by 2,065 18- to 25-year-olds living predominately in Los Angeles County. The participants were initially recruited as ninth-grade high school students as part of the USC Happiness & Health Project, which has been surveying this group about their health behaviors every six months since 2013.
Of the young adults contacted, 891 identified as Democrat, 148 as Republican, 320 as “Independent or Other,” and 706 declined to answer or said they didn’t know what political party they identify with.
Researchers, whose findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that 24.3% of Republican young adults said they don’t frequently social distance from others, compared with just 5.2% of Democrats.
Differences in social distancing practices were also found when Republicans were compared to Independents and young adults who did not report a political party affiliation. Researchers discovered that Republicans versus other groups were more likely to visit public indoor venues such as malls, restaurants, bars or clubs, or attend or host parties with 10 people or more.
Throughout most of the COVID-19 pandemic, California has recommended that all residents practice social distancing and wear a mask when outside their home. Current restrictions prohibit private gatherings of any size.
Leventhal noted that when his team statistically adjusted for 21 factors that could explain the difference in social distancing across political party groups, including propensity for risk-taking behaviors, Republicans were four times more likely than the others to be infrequent social distancers.
He also said that the “blue county within a blue state” setting for the study underscores that the link between political party affiliation and social distancing cannot simply be reduced to an issue of urban vs. rural differences.
USC’s department of preventive medicine recently looked at another impact of the pandemic on young adults: stress-eating. The pandemic has resulted in a widely reported uptick in snacking, grazing and purchasing of unhealthy “comfort” food. The USC study, published Dec. 4 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, surveyed 1,820 19-year-olds about pandemic coping behaviors.
They found that young adults who reported overeating to cope with social distancing and isolation had gained 5.5 pounds in the first 13 weeks of the pandemic.
“Interventions to promote healthy eating practices in young adults warrant consideration for weight gain prevention during the pandemic,” wrote first author Tyler Mason, an assistant professor of clinical preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
In addition to Leventhal, other authors of the politics and social distancing study include Jessica Barrington-Trimis, Rob McConnell, Jennifer Unger, Steve Sussman and Junhan Cho, all of the Keck School of Medicine of USC; and Hongying Dai of the University of Nebraska. The stress-eating study includes Leventhal and Barrington-Trimis as co-authors.
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Dave says
Young Republicans don’t want to become OLD Republicans.
That’s a good this for all of us.
PUTIN WON BUT TRUMP LOST. Any questions? says
” Ode To Tя☭mp;
The “billionaire” who hides his tax returns. The “genius” who hides his grades. The “businessman” who bankrupted 5 casinos and lost over $1B in ten years. The “playboy” who pays for sex but not his taxes.
The “Christian” who doesn’t go to church, read or try to understand the bible he hlds upside down. The “philanthropist” who defrauds charities, like the Tя☭mp foundation. The “patriot” who dodged the draft five times and received five deferments. The “innocent man” who refuses to testify and blocked witnesses from testifying/ ignored subpoenas from lawmakers.
The “married family man” who is divorced twice and had affairs behind the backs of all three wives including the first lady with a porn star Stormy Daniels. The “hard working and minimal golfer” who not only has golfed more than other Presidents, but has made the American people pay his resorts to feed and house secret service The “elected official” who has done nothing but try to get himself re-elected by staging rallies all over the country and sticking us with the bills
The “leader” who accepts no responsibility. The “doctor” who knows more than the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for the last 35 years. The “racist” who doesn’t understand or more likely care that words matter The “war time President” who achieved getting more Americans killed than 20 years of Vietnam The “scientist” who suggests injecting disinfectant to clean out the inside.
Simply put; Tя☭mp voters are what they grab.”
THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR TRUMP VOTED FOR THAT GUY ABOVE. THE PEOPLE WHO BLAME DEMOCRATS FOR EVERYTHING VOTED FOR THAT GUY ABOVE.
AND, DON’T YOU FORGET IT.
Alby says
It seems that you got your nose so far up where He would never dare grab. Ode to yourself; Pull out and wash your face with disinfectant. But dont drink it.
Dave says
Young Republicans don’t want to become OLD Republicans.
That’s a good this for all of us.
PUTIN WON BUT TRUMP LOST says
Poor Alby,
S/he can’t dispute 1 thing in the above Ode To Trump.
You’ve got your head so far up Trump’s A$$ do you see any polyps?
Alby says
If I tried, there wouldn’t be room for me since all of you are looming around up in there. But I would imagine those polyps having your eyes observing his personal life for for the purpose of exploitation. Its been like that ever since he was elected by the people for only a handful of reasons.
Barbi says
America’s number 1 problem, social and mainstream media, taking money under-the-table from communist China, playing divide ‘n conquer, playing off fellow American citizens, against each other.
Lois says
The goal of our mainstream media is no longer objectively journalism. Dominated by flaming liberals, our mainstream media is dedicated to slanting news to fit their narrative, thus perpetuating a feedback loop, insulting and marginalizing conservatives, baiting them into an outburst which validates their narrative. The mainstream media’s 2020 narrative, all Republicans are white supremacists —
Lois Lame is not Superman's girlfriend says
Actually, all white supremacists are Rpublcians. All KKK members are Republicans.
All totally misinformed people are Republicans.
Trump has over 25,000 documented lies and you bought them and are blaming the main steam media for reporting them. That’s on you.
Facts says
Democratic Senator Robert Byrd was a member of the KKK. He was voted in numerous times. Democrat turned Republican David Duke was a member of the KKK. He was rejected many times for many offices, winning only once.
Lois Lame is not Superman's girlfriend says
That was then. This is now.
Catch up, kid.
It’s 2021 and you just woke up.
You don’t know that the southern racist Democrats went over to the Republican Party after the Civil Rights legislation was passed in the 60s.
Since then, Nixon took advantage of that. Reagan’s words “welfare queens” was more of that. The Bushes used racist ads to win. And, now Trump who needs no intro to racism.
Do you see a pattern there? The KKK/white ‘supremes’ (no not the real Supremes) are now running the Republican Party. It is a staight racist line from the 60s to now.
And, the Republicans in Congress are scared $chitless of the Frankenstein Trump monster they created and who has destroyed the party for good. Igor Pence has no future either for sucking up to the monster Trump.
It’s all good.
Do you want to say more or just STFU?
Horace D. Jones says
Democratic racism is more subtle. Sure, they vote blue, but don’t let a person of color move into West LA or the Presidio. The dumb rednecks down South are racists to your face. It doesn’t excuse their moronic and hateful behavior. I’d rather know up front who hates me on the basis of my skin color rather to have them smile and use terms like schvartze or make excuses why they won’t rent to me.
As for welfare queens, why didn’t the Dems back Bush Jr. when he wanted to allow people to use Section 8 money for down payments on homes? Maybe because they liked the cash flow that comes from owning and renting to those on Section 8.
Racists exist in most if not all political parties. It is a plague that needs to die.
Lois Lame is not Superman's girlfriend says
Horace D.
Most minorities know who is for them and who is against them. That’s why nearly 90% of Black Americans vote Democratic.
As for you trying to massage your words to make it seem like it’s on both sides.
That’s a big fail.
As for Section 8. Who do you think owns the most Section 8 homes here in the Antelope Valley and getting the rent money? Not the renters who get all the static but the landlords who are more likely to be REPUBLICAN. Yes, indeed.
Ever wonder why Republicans want to get rid of Social Secruity, Medicare, Medicaid, EBT cards and the rest BUT NOT SECTION 8 housing?
Of course you don’t. You don’t really do much thinking do you?
Derrrrrrrrrrrrp says
To not superman,
It shouldnt surprise me the amount of stoopid I see here, but you are pretty funny! Whats your condition? Dropped on your head as a child? Paint chip eating window licker? It must be someone elses fault, I’m sure it can’t be yours. Why keep changing your name when you comment? Take your pills and go back to the basement.
Lois Lame is not Superman's girlfriend says
Says Derrrrrrrrrrrrp, a concern hag.
Dave has no tolerance for fools and liars says
America’s #1 problem isn’t Trump. It’s the 70+ million who voted for him. the Bushes, Reagan, Nixon. I left out Ford because the GOP gave us our first and only unelected president. They’ve given us a lot of crummy presidents and likely will continue. Their pool of potential candidates needs shocking wilh a lot of chlorine. and a new filter.
Meanwhile, what Barbi is blind and deaf to is that Democrats have to do cleanup after each republican president like Clinton did, and Obama did and now Biden will have to.
You realize that they will have to fumigate the White House before the Bidens can move in. COVID19 you know. And TRUMP45 is toxic to people. Look at what he did to most of the people in his administratino that he threw under the Beast (the prez’s limo) AG Barr might be next.
Poor Lame Donald Duck. He can’t fire the 3 Supremes he nominated for the Court. who really, really $crewed him really, really good.
The 70 milion were a ready audience and source of free money for Trump. He’s still collecting from many of them who were conned into thinking it was for the election challenges. No. It’s for paying off his campaign debts and the rest goes into his pocket. He’ll need it for legal bills starting January 21, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
DO NOT PASS GO, Donald. GO STRAIGHT TO JAIL with that thing on your head you stole from the pet cemetery*.You will match your orange jumpsuit like it’s camo.
*Thanks to Jim Carrey for that one.
That was fun. The Trump Cult, like all cults, doesn’t end well. Jim Jones. David Korech. Some of his cult in Arizona said they’d die for him. Pass it on. There are 70 million yet to go.
Alby says
Public health practices should always correlate with politics, let alone life itself. Wanna do a real study on social distancing? Go to walmart or food 4 less around 11 pm and expect a swarm of black goons looking for whats next to you in line while pretending that you’re not there and that your individual social space is invalid. Whoever conducted this study for this article is most likely a blmgbtqueen(s) thats desperate to pin all the ugly aspects of humanity on the republicans or independent. Unfortunately it seems that a war is required to make these booger noses finally get it. Strangers should keep their [removed] distance and get edumacated on the importance of an individuals personal space and teach their damn children the same because god knows if verbal demands or coarse action won’t make them get it, then what the hell will? If a man or woman cant discipline or teach there children these important values of humanity then they have no business getting horny and procreating.
Sonny says
Humblemost apologies, our mainstream media’s credibility is thoroughly shot. When a democrat dominated mainstream media politicizes the issue, capitalizing upon coronavirus, to deflect public attention from election rigging? Deliberately burying the story, on Bejing-Biden’s wayward son? Congratulations! Kudos for a job well done! 70 million Americans no longer believe a word the mainstream media says –
Sonny today followed by tomorrow says
Turn off Fox ‘news’ Sonnyboy.
Well, aftre you’ve bought some gold off their advertisers.
-And, you’ve bought My Pillow from that guy.
Those 70 million you refer to were ill-informed before this election, before Trump, before the Tea Baggers and before they were born even.
Your comment proves it.
Rob white says
Antelope Valley Is a cesspool of [removed]