The psychological effects of climate change on youth and their pro-environmental behaviors

Abstract

 Climate change affects people directly, affecting their physical and mental health, as well as the loss and destruction of their property and threatening their safety. It also affects their psyche indirectly, as they show signs of climate/environmental anxiety at multiple levels, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. While the feeling of climate/environmental anxiety is shared by all members of society, the results of most studies have shown that the highest levels of anxiety are recorded among young people. In this direction, our study aims to determine the level of climate/environmental anxiety among young people and its relationship with pro-environmental behaviors (individual and collective). The research sample included 194 young men and women, distributed by gender (17 young men (8.8%) and 177 young women (91.2%)). The age of the sample ranged from 19 to 28 years, with an average age of 20.20. Results showed a higher frequency of functional symptoms of anxiety in adolescents compared to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional symptoms. Adolescents reported engaging in more pro-environmental behaviors individually than in group activities. The results indicated that emotional and cognitive symptoms of environmental/climate anxiety have the potential to predict adolescents' adoption of proenvironmental behaviors