Climate anxiety, wellbeing and pro-environmental action: Correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countriesDepartment of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland.
School of Psychology, University of New England, New South Wales, Australia.
Psychology Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Department of Management and Organisational Studies, Faculty of Social Science, University of Western Ontario, Canada.
School of Applied Social Sciences, De Montfort University, UK.
Department of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour, University of Greenwich, UK.
Department of Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway.
Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, University of Tehran, Iran.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy.
Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Japan.
Department of Psychology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria.
Department of Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway.
Department of Social and Behavioural Science, Birzeit University, Palestine.
Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Spain.
Department of Civil and Water Resources Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania.
Department of Psychology, Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
School of Health and Society, University of Salford, UK.
Department of Psychology, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman.
Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, Cartagena, Colombia.
Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence, Bielefeld University, Germany.
Van Yüzüncü Yil University, Turkey.
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2022 (English)In: Journal of Environmental Psychology, ISSN 0272-4944, E-ISSN 1522-9610, Vol. 84, article id 101887Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
This study explored the correlates of climate anxiety in a diverse range of national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 32 countries (N = 12,246). Our results show that climate anxiety is positively related to rate of exposure to information about climate change impacts, the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, and perceived descriptive norms about emotional responding to climate change. Climate anxiety was also positively linked to pro-environmental behaviours and inversely related to mental wellbeing. Notably, climate anxiety had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in 31 out of 32 countries, and with pro-environmental behaviour in 24 countries, it only predicted environmental activism in 12 countries. Our findings highlight contextual boundaries to engagement in environmental action as an antidote to climate anxiety, and the broad international significance of negative climate-related emotions as a plausible threat to wellbeing.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Academic Press, 2022. Vol. 84, article id 101887
Keywords [en]
Climate change anxiety, Climate change, Wellbeing, Pro-environmental behaviour, Climate activism, Emotions
National Category
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-101699DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101887ISI: 000922803600001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85142198148OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-101699DiVA, id: diva2:1702028
2022-10-092022-10-092023-03-03Bibliographically approved