The Root Causes of Political Polarization: Role of the Youth

This study aims to determine the main factor causing polarization within the United States by interviewing the youth population—hearing their perspective and their experience on politics. Through comprehensive literature analysis and evaluation of current scholarly arguments on the main cause of political polarization, I found that there is no single factor that causes polarization, but through a combination of all factors. Additionally, this paper shares the ideas and viewpoints of adolescents (ages 16-19) on current politics, which offers a glimpse of potential problems that the government should consider fixing. Polarization is currently on the rise and has broached major debates among researchers and also concerns among adolescents.