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President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan puts him squarely at odds with one of his most supportive constituencies: young people.

According to a November poll commissioned by Harvard's Institute of Politics and released Thursday, Americans ages 18 to 29 oppose sending new troops to Afghanistan by a margin of more than 2 to 1. Sixty-six percent of young people said they would oppose a new increase in troops, compared with just 31 percent who said they would support one. It's not just Afghanistan where the president's approach has left young Americans unenthusiastic. Fifty-two percent disapproved of Obama's handling of health care; an identical proportion disapproved of his approach to the economy.

On the whole, pollster John Della Volpe said, young people's views of the president have begun to mirror more closely the views of the country at large.

"Whereas they were outliers one year ago, they are much more in line with the general population at this point," he said.

"Young people were treated almost specially during the campaign," Della Volpe continued. "Part of it might be a ... disconnect with the regular communications that's coming out of Washington."

The president's approval rating remains high among young Americans. However, at 58 percent, it is several points higher than among the country at large.

And in an encouraging sign, most young people who volunteered for Obama in 2008 say they would do it again when he runs for reelection. Fifty-five percent of young Americans who volunteered for Obama's 2008 campaign said they would be very likely to help out again in 2012. 

One challenge the president faces, according to Institute of Politics Director Bill Purcell, is getting young people fired up about health care when the issues tend to be less of a priority for them. In the IOP's poll, young people were supportive of several key health care goals — 76 percent supported requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions and 57 percent backed a publicly funded option for heatlh insurance — but just 48 percent said the administration should enact major health reform now.

"It simply isn't as directly relevant to their daily lives. They either consider themselves immortal … or it's something their families have taken care of," Purcell said.

Harvard's survey, conducted online by the firm Knowledge Networks, tested 2,807 citizens ages 18 to 29 between Nov. 4 and 16. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.