Abstract
Experiences of ‘climate anxiety’ are considered an adaptive response to a real threat, as well as a potential cause of impairment. To date, little attention has been paid to how children and adolescents may be uniquely predisposed to climate anxiety, despite being an age cohort particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This Review uses a social–ecological framework to identify the influences on climate anxiety for young people. We explore the directionality and interplay between individual factors, the physical environment and the influence of micro- (family, peers), meso- (school, community), exo- (government, media) and macro- (culture) systems on children’s and adolescents’ experience of climate anxiety. The Review highlights future research considerations and key issues relevant to professionals working with youth.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kessler, R. C. et al. Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the WHO world mental health surveys. Br. J. Psychiatry 197, 378–385 (2010).
Erskine, H. E. et al. A heavy burden on young minds: the global burden of mental and substance use disorders in children and youth. Psychol. Med. 45, 1551–1563 (2015).
Boyes, E. et al. An international study of the propensity of students to limit their use of private transport in light of their understanding of the causes of global warming. Int. Res. Geogr. 23, 142–165 (2014).
Clayton, S. & Karazsia, B. T. Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. J. Environ. Psychol. 69, 101434 (2020).
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 5th edn (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
Charlson, F. et al. Climate change and mental health: a scoping review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18, 4486 (2021).
Burke, S. E. L., Sanson, A. V. & Van Hoorn, J. The psychological effects of climate change on children. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 20, 35 (2018). A review of available evidence on the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the mental health of children.
The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index (UNICEF, 2021). A report that identifies how children are exposed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, using the Children’s Climate Risk Index.
Wullenkord, M., Troger, J., Hamann, K. R., Loy, L. & Reese, G. Anxiety and climate change: a validation of the climate anxiety scale in a German-speaking quota sample and an investigation of psychological correlates. Clim. Change 168, 20 (2021).
Helm, S. V., Pollitt, A., Barnett, M. A., Curran, M. A. & Craig, Z. R. Differentiating environmental concern in the context of psychological adaption to climate change. Glob. Environ. Change 48, 158–167 (2018).
Clayton, S. Climate anxiety: psychological responses to climate change. J. Anxiety Disord. 74, 102263 (2020). An examination of the nature of climate anxiety and which populations may be affected by it.
Taylor, S. Anxiety disorders, climate change, and the challenges ahead: introduction to the special issue. J. Anxiety Disord. 76, 102313 (2020).
Hickman, C. et al. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about governmental responses to climate change: a global survey. Lancet Planet. Health 5, e863–e873 (2021). A global survey, conducted in 10 countries, of climate anxiety in 10,000 youth aged 16–25 years.
Verplanken, B. & Roy, D. “My worries are rational, climate change is not”: habitual ecological worrying is an adaptive response. PLoS ONE 8, e74708–e74708 (2013).
Stroebe, M. et al. Ruminative coping as avoidance. Eur. Arch. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 257, 462–472 (2007).
Strife, S. J. Children’s environmental concerns: expressing ecophobia. J. Environ. Educ. 43, 37–54 (2012).
Bronfenbrenner, U. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design (Harvard University Press, 1979).
Sheffield, P. E. & Landrigan, P. J. Global climate change and children’s health: threats and strategies for prevention. Environ. Health Perspect. 119, 291–298 (2011).
Xu, Z. et al. Climate change and children’s health—a call for research on what works to protect children. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 9, 3298–3316 (2012).
Waterston, T. Climate change—the greatest crisis for children? J. Trop. Pediatr. 52, 383–385 (2006).
Akachi, Y., Goodman, D. & Parker, D. Global climate change and child health: a review of pathways, impacts and measures to improve the evidence base. Innocenti Discussion Papers (2009).
Bartlett, S. The implications of climate change for children in lower-income countries. Child Youth Environ. 18, 71–98 (2008).
Faustini, P. The Challenges of Climate Change: Children on the Front Line (UNICEF Office of Research, 2014).
Subramaniam, V. Seasonal variation in the incidence of preeclampsia and eclampsia in tropical climatic conditions. BMC Women’s Health 7, 18 (2007).
Davenport, F., Grace, K., Funk, C. & Shukla, S. Child health outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa: a comparison of changes in climate and socioeconomic factors. Glob. Environ. Change 46, 72–87 (2017).
Cobham, V. E. et al. Systematic review: anxiety in children and adolescents with chronic medical conditions. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 59, 595–618 (2020).
Sanson, A. V., Van Hoorn, J. & Burke, S. E. L. Responding to the impacts of the climate crisis on children and youth. Child Dev. Perspect. 13, 201–207 (2019). A key paper highlighting how professionals can respond to the impacts of climate change on children and adolescents, and ways in which they may provide support.
Hanna, R. & Oliva, P. Implications of climate change for children in developing countries. Future Child. 26, 115–132 (2016). An important discussion on the implications of climate change for children residing in the Majority World.
Huda, M. N. Understanding Indigenous people’s perception on climate change and climatic hazards: a case study of Chakma indigenous communities in Rangamati Sadar Upazila of Rangamati District, Bangladesh. Nat. Hazards 65, 2147–2159 (2013).
Devkota, N. & Phuyal, R. K. An analysis of Nepalese youth understanding level on climate change. Asian J. Econ. Model. 5, 342–353 (2017).
Berse, K. Climate change from the lens of Malolos children: perception, impact and adaptation. Disaster Prev. Manag. 26, 217–229 (2017).
Chokriensukchai, K. & Tamang, R. Thai youths and global warming: media information, awareness, and lifestyle activities. Appl. Environ. Educ. Commun. 9, 198–208 (2010).
Prudente, M., Aguja, S. & Anito, J. Jr. Exploring climate change conceptions and attitudes: drawing implications for a framework on environmental literacy. Adv. Sci. Lett. 21, 2413–2418 (2015).
Chhokar, K., Dua, S., Taylor, N., Boyes, E. & Stanisstreet, M. Senior secondary Indian students’ views about global warming, and their implications for education. Sci. Educ. Int. 23, 133–149 (2012).
Otto, S., Evans, G. W., Moon, M. J. & Kaiser, F. G. The development of children’s environmental attitude and behavior. Glob. Environ. Change 58, 101947 (2019).
Olsson, D. & Gericke, N. The adolescent dip in students’ sustainability consciousness—implications for education for sustainable development. J. Environ. Educ. 47, 35–51 (2016).
Lee, K., Gjersoe, N., O’Neill, S. & Barnett, J. Youth perceptions of climate change: a narrative synthesis. Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Clim. Change 11, e641 (2020). A synthesis of available literature examining perceptions and understandings of climate change in children and adolescents.
Krettenauer, T., Wang, W., Jia, F. & Yao, Y. Connectedness with nature and the decline of pro-environmental behavior in adolescence: a comparison of Canada and China. J. Environ. Psychol. 71, 101348 (2020).
Jia, F. & Yu, H. Action, communication, and engagement: how parents “ACE” children’s pro-environmental behaviors. J. Environ. Psychol. 74, 101575 (2021).
Hicks, D. & Bord, A. Learning about global issues: why most educators only make things worse. Environ. Educ. Res. 7, 413–425 (2001).
Taber, F. & Taylor, N. Climate of concern: a search for effective strategies for teaching children about global warming. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Educ. 4, 97–116 (2009).
Ojala, M. Hope and climate change: the importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. Environ. Educ. Res. 18, 625–642 (2011).
Narksompong, J. & Limjirakan, S. Youth participation in climate change for sustainable engagement. Rev. Eur. Comp. Int. Environ. Law. 24, 171–181 (2015).
MacKay, M., Parlee, B. & Karsgaard, C. Youth engagement in climate change action: case study on Indigenous youth at COP24. Sustainability 12, 6299 (2020). A qualitative study examining individual and community benefits of Indigenous youth from the Mackenzie River Basin, Canada, participating in climate action.
Iwaniec, J. & Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. Parents as agents: engaging children in environmental literacy in China. Sustainability 12, 6605 (2020).
Simsar, A. Young children’s ecological footprint awareness and environmental attitudes in Turkey. Child Indic. Res. 14, 1387–1413 (2021).
Gong, Y., Li, J., Xie, J., Zhang, L. & Lou, Q. Will “green” parents have “green” children? The relationship between parents’ and early adolescents’ green consumption values. J. Bus. Ethics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04835-y (2021).
Stevenson, K. T., Peterson, M. N. & Bondell, H. D. The influence of personal beliefs, friends, and family in building climate change concern among adolescents. Environ. Educ. Res. 25, 832–845 (2019).
Lawson, D. F. et al. Children can foster climate change concern among their parents. Nat. Clim. Change 9, 458–462 (2019).
Murray, L., Creswell, C. & Cooper, P. J. The development of anxiety disorders in childhood: an integrative review. Psychol. Med. 39, 1413–1423 (2009).
Muris, P. & Field, A. P. The role of verbal threat information in the development of childhood fear. “Beware the Jabberwock!”. Clin. Child Fam. Psychol. Rev. 13, 129–150 (2010).
Field, A. P. & Lawson, J. The verbal information pathway to fear and subsequent causal learning in children. Cogn. Emot. 22, 459–479 (2008).
Marino, E. & Lazrus, H. Migration or forced displacement?: the complex choices of climate change and disaster migrants in Shishmaref, Alaska and Nanumea, Tuvalu. Hum. Organ. 74, 341–350 (2015).
Filkov, A. I., Ngo, T., Matthews, S., Telfer, S. & Penman, T. D. Impact of Australia’s catastrophic 2019/20 bushfire season on communities and environment. Retrospective analysis and current trends. J. Saf. Sci. Resil. 1, 44–56 (2020).
Burke, S., Sanson, A. & Van Hoorn, J. Guide for Parents on the Climate Crisis: an APS Information Sheet (Australian Psychological Society, 2018).
DeMocker, M. The Parent’s Guide to Climate Revolution (New World Library, 2018).
Bowlby, J. Attachment and Loss: Separation, Anxiety and Anger Vol. II (Hogarth–Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1973).
Bar-Haim, Y., Dan, O., Eshel, Y. & Sagi-Schwartz, A. Predicting children’s anxiety from early attachment relationships. J. Anxiety Disord. 21, 1061–1068 (2007).
Costa, N. M., Weems, C. F. & Pina, A. A. Hurricane Katrina and youth anxiety: the role of perceived attachment beliefs and parenting behaviors. J. Anxiety Disord. 23, 935–941 (2009).
La Greca, A. M. & Harrison, H. M. Adolescent peer relations, friendships, and romantic relationships: do they predict social anxiety and depression? J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 34, 49–61 (2005).
Aune, T., Juul, E. M. L., Beidel, D. C., Nordahl, H. M. & Dvorak, R. D. Mitigating adolescent social anxiety symptoms: the effects of social support and social self-efficacy in findings from the Young-HUNT 3 study. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 30, 441–449 (2020).
Chen, S., Bagrodia, R., Pfeffer, C. C., Meli, L. & Bonanno, G. A. Anxiety and resilience in the face of natural disasters associated with climate change: a review and methodological critique. J. Anxiety Disord. 76, 102297 (2020).
Ratna Djuwita, C. & Benyamin, A. Teaching pro-environmental behavior: a challenge in Indonesian schools. Psychological Res. Urban Soc. 2, 142–149 (2019).
Tayne, K., Littrell, M. K., Okochi, C., Gold, A. U. & Leckey, E. Framing action in a youth climate change filmmaking program: hope, agency, and action across scales. Environ. Educ. Res. 27, 706–726 (2020).
Brown, M. in Education in Times of Environmental Crises (ed. Winograd, K.) 195–209 (Routledge, 2016).
Monroe, M. C., Plate, R. R., Oxarart, A., Bowers, A. & Chaves, W. A. Identifying effective climate change education strategies: a systematic review of the research. Environ. Educ. Res. 25, 791–812 (2019).
Sulistyawati, S., Mulasari, S. A. & Sukesi, T. W. Assessment of knowledge regarding climate change and health among adolescents in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. J. Environ. Public Health 2018, 9716831 (2018).
Amanchukwu, R., God, T. & Ololube, N. P. Climate change education in Nigeria: the role of curriculum review. Education 5, 71–79 (2015).
Plutzer, E. et al. Climate confusion among U.S. teachers. Science 351, 664 (2016).
Wise, S. B. Climate change in the classroom: patterns, motivations, and barriers to instruction among Colorado science teachers. J. Geosci. Educ. 58, 297–309 (2010).
Cutter-Mackenzie, A. & Rousell, D. Education for what? Shaping the field of climate change education with children and young people as co-researchers. Child. Geogr. 17, 90–104 (2019).
Khadka, A., Li, C. J., Stanis, S. W. & Morgan, M. Unpacking the power of place-based education in climate change communication. Appl. Environ. Educ. Commun. 20, 77–91 (2021).
Chambers, I. et al. Education for sustainable development: a study in adolescent perception changes towards sustainability following a strategic planning-based intervention—the Young Persons’ Plan for the Planet program. Sustainability 11, 5817 (2019).
Trott, C. D. Reshaping our world: collaborating with children for community-based climate change action. Action Res. 17, 42–62 (2019).
Johnson, L. R., Johnson-Pynn, J. S., Lugumya, D. L., Kityo, R. & Drescher, C. F. Cultivating youth’s capacity to address climate change in Uganda. Int. Perspect. Psychol. 2, 29–44 (2013).
Gallay, E., Pykett, A., Smallwood, M. & Flanagan, C. Urban youth preserving the environmental commons: student learning in place-based stewardship education as citizen scientists. Sustain. Earth 3, 3 (2020).
Lori, P. Children and disasters: understanding vulnerability, developing capacities, and promoting resilience: an introduction. Child Youth Environ. 18, 1–29 (2008).
Duran-Becerra, B., Hillyer, G. C., Cosgrove, A. & Basch, C. H. Climate change on YouTube: a potential platform for youth learning. Health Promot. Perspect. 10, 282–286 (2020).
Pihkala, P. Eco-anxiety and environmental education. Sustainability 12, 10149 (2020). A literature review on climate anxiety that provides recommendations for how educators and schools can engage with climate anxious youth.
Gislason, M. K., Kennedy, A. M. & Witham, S. M. The interplay between social and ecological determinants of mental health for children and youth in the climate crisis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 18, 4573 (2021).
O’Brien, K., Selboe, E. & Hayward, B. M. Exploring youth activism on climate change: dutiful, disruptive, and dangerous dissent. Ecol. Soc. 23, 42 (2018).
Doherty, T. J. & Clayton, S. The psychological impacts of global climate change. Am. Psychol. 66, 265–276 (2011).
Maibach, E. et al. Health professionals, the Paris agreement, and the fierce urgency of now. J. Clim. Change Health 1, 100002 (2021).
Briggs, C. M. & Weissbecker, I. in Climate Change and Human Well-Being: Global Challenges and Opportunities (ed. Weissbecker, I.) 97–116 (Springer, 2011).
Akresh, R. Climate change, conflict, and children. Future Child. 26, 51–71 (2016).
Pegram, J. & Colon, C. Are Climate Change Policies Child-Sensitive? (UNICEF Office of Global Insight and Policy, 2020).
Markkanen, S. & Anger-Kraavi, A. Social impacts of climate change mitigation policies and their implications for inequality. Clim. Policy 19, 827–844 (2019).
Scannell, L. & Gifford, R. The relations between natural and civic place attachment and pro-environmental behavior. J. Environ. Psychol. 30, 289–297 (2010).
Scannell, L., Cox, R. S., Fletcher, S. & Heykoop, C. “That was the last time I saw my house”: the importance of place attachment among children and youth in disaster contexts. Am. J. Community Psychol. 58, 158–173 (2016).
Ruiz, C. & Hernández, B. Emotions and coping strategies during an episode of volcanic activity and their relations to place attachment. J. Environ. Psychol. 38, 279–287 (2014).
Birch, J., Rishbeth, C. & Payne, S. R. Nature doesn’t judge you—how urban nature supports young people’s mental health and wellbeing in a diverse UK city. Health Place 62, 102296 (2020).
Spyce, T. M. Disruption in Place Attachment: Insights of Young Aboriginal Adults on the Social and Cultural Impacts of Industrial Development in Northern Alberta. MSc thesis, Univ. Alberta (2009).
McNamara, K. E. & Westoby, R. Local knowledge and climate change adaptation on Erub Island, Torres Strait. Local Environ. 16, 887–901 (2011).
Mishra, S., Mazumdar, S. & Suar, D. Place attachment and flood preparedness. J. Environ. Psychol. 30, 187–197 (2010).
Huang, K.-Y., Cheng, S., Calzada, E. & Brotman, L. M. Symptoms of anxiety and associated risk and protective factors in young Asian American children. Child Psychiatry Hum. Dev. 43, 761–774 (2012).
Mammarella, I. C., Donolato, E., Caviola, S. & Giofrè, D. Anxiety profiles and protective factors: a latent profile analysis in children. Pers. Individ. Differ. 124, 201–208 (2018).
Ojala, M. Regulating worry, promoting hope: how do children, adolescents, and young adults cope with climate change? Int. J. Environ. Sci. Educ. 7, 537–561 (2012). Identifies coping strategies used by Swedish young people (from late childhood to early adulthood) to regulate worry and manage emotions related to climate change.
Ojala, M. Coping with climate change among adolescents: implications for subjective well-being and environmental engagement. Sustainability 5, 2191–2209 (2013).
Ojala, M. Adolescents’ worries about environmental risks: subjective well-being, values, and existential dimensions. J. Youth Stud. 8, 331–347 (2005).
Tillmann, S., Tobin, D., Avison, W. & Gilliland, J. Mental health benefits of interactions with nature in children and teenagers: a systematic review. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 72, 958 (2018).
Acknowledgements
T.J.C. is supported by a Child and Youth Mental Health Research Group PhD Scholarship. H.J.T. is supported by the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, which is funded by the Queensland Department of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
T.J.C. led the writing of the article, with J.G.S., F.J.C. and H.J.T. contributing to writing at all stages. All authors contributed to conceptualization and the editing process.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review information
Nature Climate Change thanks Susan Clayton, Katharine Lee and Ann Sanson for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Crandon, T.J., Scott, J.G., Charlson, F.J. et al. A social–ecological perspective on climate anxiety in children and adolescents. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 123–131 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01251-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01251-y
This article is cited by
-
Einsamkeit in Zeiten globaler Polykrisen
Der Nervenarzt (2024)
-
Ecological Grief, Religious Coping, and Spiritual Crises: Exploring Eco-Spiritual Grief
Pastoral Psychology (2024)
-
What Children Know: Children, Climate Change, and Epistemic Injustice
Pastoral Psychology (2024)
-
Polarized collaboration benefits knowledge production: empirical analyses of the mediating effect of co-production pattern in Wikipedia articles on climate change
Journal of Computational Social Science (2024)
-
A theoretical model of climate anxiety and coping
Discover Psychology (2024)