In a weird way, I’m unhappy that things such as social media, modern schooling, increasingly competitive college admissions, and so on, have made kids so much more politically engaged and involved from such a young age.
I think the main problem with the issues mentioned here is not excessive political engagement, but instead, the over-politicization of society.
What I mean by this is that today, every topic is made to be political, even when it doesn't need to be. Social media and the rules under which different social networks are run (Elon Musk's 'free speech' Twitter vs other alternatives), the constant discussion of perceived or actual unfairness resulting from affirmative action in university admissions, and constant issues with perceived or actual ideological agendas being pushed in schools and so on are examples of how these topics are politicized to the point that it's very hard not to care about politics if you are young but also even if you are an adult. I don't know if it is still possible to de-politicize our society, because today, everyone views something political in everything.
Regarding the question of mental well-being affecting political ideology, I had trouble finding studies that could confirm the causation of this, but I found one that examines overall health in children and political ideology in adulthood. Children with better health were more likely to be conservatives as adults and less likely to be liberals as adults. This is after controlling other factors such as wealth. Given that healthy children are more likely to become healthy adults, and good physical health is associated with good mental health, maybe this study suggests that it is a possibility that mental well-being (as well as just having good health overall) can affect political ideology?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827322001938
