To Örebro University

oru.seÖrebro University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Late adolescents' sense of moral responsibility for climate change: the roles of nature connectedness, parental norms, climate-change worry, distancing, and gender
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences.ORCID iD: 0009-0007-0962-146X
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences. Örebro University, School of Health Sciences.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0097-4035
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences. University of Oulu, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Oulu, Finland.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6613-5974
2025 (English)In: ICEP 2025: Final Programme & Abstract Book, 2025, p. 296-297Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Addressing climate change requires people in the Global North to avoid high-impact behaviors like car use and air travel. Late adolescents, whose engagement in such behaviors may be restricted by age and parental decision-making, are in a crucial stage for developing a sense of moral responsibility for climate change. Understanding why some adolescents cultivate this responsibility is vital, as responsibility relates to both climate engagement and well-being. Therefore, this study aims to identify factors associated with late adolescents' sense of moral responsibility. Nature connectedness, parental social norms, and climate-change worry have been positively linked to pro-environmental behavior in previous research, but their role in relation to moral responsibility for climate change remains less clear. Similarly, the relationship between distancing coping and moral responsibility is yet to be fully understood. In this study we explore ways that these factors are associated with late adolescents´ moral responsibility, and examine whether these relationships differ between girls and boys. In 2023, we surveyed 619 Swedish high school students (ages 16-19), and used structural equation modeling to answer our research questions. Connection to nature, parents' norms, climate-change worry, and distancing coping positively influenced responsibility, with parents' norms having a stronger effect on boys. Climate-change worry partially mediated how parents’ norms and nature connectedness influenced responsibility, with a stronger mediation effect for girls in the latter relationship. Distancing coping did not moderate the relationship between worry and responsibility. Limitations are discussed, and we propose fostering moral responsibility through nature experiences, role modeling, and constructive worry management.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. p. 296-297
Keywords [en]
climate change, moral responsibility, adolescents, climate-change worry, nature connectedness
National Category
Psychology
Research subject
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-123972OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-123972DiVA, id: diva2:2001417
Conference
International Conference on Environmental Psychology (ICEP 2025), Vilnius, Lithuania, June 15-18, 2025
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2021-00592Available from: 2025-09-26 Created: 2025-09-26 Last updated: 2025-09-26Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

ICEP 2025. Final Programme & Abstract Book

Authority records

Rikner Martinsson, AmandaGlatz, TereseOjala, Maria

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Rikner Martinsson, AmandaGlatz, TereseOjala, Maria
By organisation
School of Behavioural, Social and Legal SciencesSchool of Health Sciences
Psychology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 165 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf