RALEIGH, N.C. – With the election approaching Tuesday, a survey shows many Americans are feeling anticipatory stress and anxiety. 

A recent survey from the American Psychological Association revealed 69% of adults are anxious about the electoral process.

Dr. Shevaun Neupert, a professor of psychology at N.C. State, studied anticipatory election stress. 

"We found that the anticipation of election-related stressors is something that changes day to day," she said.

She said her study examined how individuals perceive potential stressors on a daily basis, noting, "On days when people were experiencing increases in those feelings of election-related stress, they experience negative emotional and physical health consequences on that day."

Neupert said the effects of this stress can be immediate, "even if the thinking about the future stressor was something that had not yet happened." 

To mitigate these feelings, she suggests a coping strategy called problem analysis. She says this approach encourages individuals to mentally engage with potential stressors, allowing them to evaluate their situation. 

"If I'm going to have something stressful relating to the election happen to me, trying to understand why that's happening," she said.

When it comes to the election, there are a lot of factors that are beyond an individual’s control. Before and after the election, Neupert advises setting goals to work on a sense of empowerment. 

“Control is really best when people have a goal that they would like to reach and they believe they have the skills or the resources or the ability to meet that goal,” she said. “So for each person evaluating what is an important goal, it could be something relatively small, it could be large, it could be in a work domain or a family domain or relationship domain."

"But picking a goal that you believe is achievable and then working towards that goal is a really great way to try to boost feelings of control,” she said.