Psychological impacts of climate change on US youth

Abstract

Awareness of the threats of climate change is causing distress in increasingly documented ways, with youth particularly affected. Experiences such as climate distress and eco-anxiety have implications for the health and well-being of societies and economies, including individuals' mental health and future planning, as well as their agency beliefs. Here, we show in a large sample of US youth (n = 2,834, ages 16 to 24) that the majority of US youth experience moderate climate distress and some functional interference from climate-related thoughts and feelings and a neutral to slightly positive sense of agency. They feel concern, interest, disappointment, frustration, sadness, anxiousness, and anger as affective responses to the crisis, and a majority report that their climate awareness may influence their plans for education, travel, and family planning. The key takeaway of this study is that the psychological impacts of climate change in US youth can have either impairing or strengthening effects, especially in the face of increased perceived direct exposure. Results show that self-reported direct experience of climate-related events is associated with increased eco-anxiety, climate distress, and impact of climate change on future planning, but also fortifying responses such as psychological adaptation and agency. These findings highlight the need for health systems and communities to prepare to address increased climate distress and related concerns in US youth as perceived exposure to climate-related hazards increases, in ways that strengthen healthy coping and agency to act. These findings have implications for the mental health of populations, climate behaviors, and life choices of young people experiencing these threats.

Keywords: agency; climate distress; eco-anxiety; psychological adaptation; youth mental health.

Fig. 1.

Mean emotion ratings (item score range: 0 to 3) for 21 emotions related to climate change. In orange are the emotions that were rated higher than the average across all emotions (thick black line), i.e., those most strongly endorsed in the sample. In blue are the emotions that were rated lower than average. Error bars represent 95% CI.

Fig. 2.

The percentage of respondents in agreement with (A) the 10 items of the climate agency scale; (B) the nine items in the Psychological Adaptation scale; (C) the four statements of the Meaning-Focused Coping Scale, excluding any respondents who indicated that they “had not at all learned to process their thoughts and feelings on climate change”; and (D) the five items assessing respondents’ considerations of climate change in specific decisions regarding future plans. Note that (*) indicates items that were reverse coded in calculating total scores.

Fig. 3.

Mean difference in emotion ratings between respondents who reported having experienced direct climate impacts vs those who did not report this. As shown, all differences were positive, indicating higher emotion ratings in the directly impacted group. The dotted lines are the lower and upper bounds of the 95% CI around the adjusted mean difference in the solid line.

Fig. 4.

The percentage of respondents in agreement with each of the five items assessing planning for the future, as a function of their direct experience with climate change impacts.