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. 2025 Jul 10;20(7):e0326931.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326931. eCollection 2025.

Social support as coping mechanism mediates the relationship between eco-anxiety and pro-environmental behavior

Veera Nieminen  1   2 , Sonja Palmo  3 , Katriina Hyvönen  4 , Jane-Veera Paakkolanvaara  4 , Kaisa J Raatikainen  5   6 , Joona Muotka  3
Affiliations

Social support as coping mechanism mediates the relationship between eco-anxiety and pro-environmental behavior

Veera Nieminen et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

We studied social support as a coping strategy for eco-anxiety. Furthermore, we investigated the moderating or mediating role of social support in the relationship between eco-anxiety and pro-environmental behavior (PEB). The participants were Finnish adults aged 19-42. Most of the participants were women (76.2%), lived in an urban environment (82.7%), and were students (47.4%) or employees (42.8%). Data collected with an online survey was analyzed using correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and a simple mediation model. We found that experiencing eco-anxiety was positively related to PEB, and that the participants with higher social support had higher levels of eco-anxiety. In addition, using social support as a coping strategy was connected to a higher level of PEB. We found that social support mediates the positive connection between eco-anxiety and PEB, but no moderating effect was found. Our results imply that social support can be an important coping strategy for adults coping with eco-anxiety, as well as promoting PEB, offering an interesting insight for future interventions.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The loading of environmental emotions on a factor of the sum variable of eco-anxiety.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Mediation model that describes the mediating effect of social support on the relationship between eco-anxiety and PEB. ***p < .001 **p < .01; ab = .175; Confidence interval [.06;.36]; C = c´ + ab = .78***; n = 358.
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