https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3246-5879
Figures
Abstract
Climate change has many adverse human health effects, including increased self-reported anxiety. However, self-reported climate anxiety may also motivate productive climate action. An online survey among US residents was developed based on prior scholarship and distributed to examine factors associated with self-reported climate anxiety. A sample of N = 2,000 US adults age 18 + completed the survey. Logistic regression analysis showed that significant predictors of self-reported climate anxiety include: greater media exposure to climate change information, more frequent discussions about climate change with friends and family, the perception that climate change will soon impact one personally, being younger, and being female. Additional analyses suggested that self-reported climate anxiety is associated with both positive and negative emotional impacts, including motivation, interest, sadness, and tension. Climate anxiety was also associated with greater engagement in environmental behaviors such as recycling. Volunteering for environmental causes and accessing straightforward climate information with less scientific jargon showed particular potential for anxiety reduction. The research suggests practical strategies to potentially reduce self-reported climate anxiety while retaining engagement in mitigating climate change.
Citation: Kricorian K, Kricorian C, Turner K (2025) Predictors and correlates of self-reported climate anxiety in the United States. PLOS Clim 4(7): e0000534. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000534
Editor: Jamie Males, PLOS Climate, UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
Received: September 14, 2024; Accepted: May 16, 2025; Published: July 16, 2025
Copyright: © 2025 Kricorian et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: Survey data can be accessed at https://github.com/chriskric/ecoanxiety-survey/blob/2a38fbebb407d6eb90e0c502f5d6114dc7997542/EcoAnxiety.sav
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Introduction
The World Health Organization calls climate change the biggest health threat that humanity faces today [1]. In addition to immediate casualties from extreme weather events, climate change has been associated with increased asthma, heart attacks, and strokes [2]. Furthermore, Taylor [3] discussed how climate change can increase the likelihood of both extreme weather events and pandemics, as warmer temperatures create hospitable habitats for disease vectors and viruses. People escaping extreme weather events may seek mass housing in shelters with other climate refugees, amplifying the spread of contagious disease. Warmer temperatures and shorter winters allow disease-carrying insects to breed longer and travel further, facilitating infectious disease outbreaks. In Latin America alone, a 4°C increase in temperature is projected to increase the number of dengue fever cases by 8 million each year. Pollution has also been linked to neurological and behavioral challenges, ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to autism spectrum disorders [4].
An important effect of climate change’s rising threat is the potential to increase self-reported anxiety and worsen a population’s subjective mental health. Sociopolitical, economic, and physical health problems caused by climate change---including forced migration, food shortages, job loss, increases in disease transmission, air pollution, and loss of social support---can often lead to distress [5]. Qi et al. [6] note that climate variability, measured by changes in temperature, may worsen the psychological effects of economic factors like unemployment on suicide rates. Exposure to natural disasters and severe weather events are correlated with anxious feelings, depression, sleep disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [7]. Edwards, Gray, and Borja [8] found that experiencing natural disasters is associated with increased parental stress, food insecurity, and family violence, among other effects. Similarly, Cruz et al. [9] found specific extreme weather impacts associated with increased psychological distress, including whether the victims had experienced evacuation, displacement, disruption of essential services (e.g., electricity), and inability to attend work or school. Catani et al. [10] note that children are particularly vulnerable to such mental health effects of climate events; this subjective mental health impact can compare to those of family violence, substance abuse, and war. Furthermore, climate events can contribute to cumulative trauma, resulting in increased rates of childhood depression, PTSD, and suicidality. Zhen et al [11] also found that adults who were older, single, lower income and/or less educated were more likely to experience PTSD because of a climate event.
Mental health may also be harmed by ruminations about climate change’s impacts [12]. Prior research has applied clear terminology to this complex phenomenon. “Eco-anxiety” is a general term used to describe anxiety related to the ecological crisis, while “climate anxiety” is a subset that refers to anxiety specifically related to the climate crisis [13]. Anticipatory fear related to future environmental degradation can lead to pre-traumatic stress syndrome [14,15]. Ramadan et al. [16] identified ten different conceptualizations of the negative emotional response to climate change, including climate anxiety, climate change worry, and eco-paralysis. Stanley et al. [17] further explored the differing implications and impacts of eco-depression, eco-anger, and self-reported eco-anxiety. Clayton and Karazsia [18] developed an objective measure of climate change anxiety, including subscales for cognitive and functional impairments, and found correlations with general anxiety and depression.
Climate anxiety harms even people who have not personally experienced the climate crisis, causing trauma, stress, grief, depression, and general cognitive impairment [19]. Hurley et al. [20] described climate anxiety as a rational response given the enormous impacts of climate change, and Verplanken and Roy [21] found that people who frequently worried about climate change were not especially likely to have pathological general levels of worry or emotional instability. In contrast, Reyes et al. [22] found that higher climate change anxiety was associated with lower mental health in a sample of young adults from the Philippines.
Climate anxiety is a lived experience, as well as an objectively measured potential correlate of mental illness. Surprisingly, though, personal, subjective perceptions of whether someone directly classifies themselves as climate-anxious are often not included in conventional measures of climate anxiety. Although subjective perceptions of anxiety may be a reasonable reaction to climate change, these feelings can still cause distress and have deleterious effects [23]. Therapeutic strategies to address these issues have not been researched extensively, but include resilience training and climate awareness. One important public health challenge in treating counterproductive climate anxiety is helping people learn to recognize their own distress and actively cope with climate change without becoming apathetic. Behavioral strategies may help manage self-perceived climate anxiety while retaining action-oriented responses, although these behavioral strategies have not been closely analyzed [24]. For example, some studies suggest the use of “social prescribing efforts” as solutions to climate anxiety. Social prescribing, such as promoting community-based activities including leisure, education, and the arts, has been shown to have significant positive impact on mental and physical health [25]. Social prescribing activities that may positively impact climate anxiety include spending time in nature and community-based work to support social connections and local natural engagement, but these solutions have not yet been studied in-depth [26,27].
Some studies suggest that self-reported climate anxiety has not been associated with specific behavioral responses to climate change [21]. However, some researchers suggest that stress about climate change has practical effects, such as motivating people and encouraging climate action, and hypothesize that these effects may serve as potential positive aspects of climate anxiety. Sanson and Bellemo [28] state that, when it comes to climate change, “action is the antidote to despair,” while Verplanken and Roy [21] found that habitual ecological worry was associated with positive environmental behaviors such as recycling. Schwartz et al. [29] determined that such collective climate action may protect against the harms of climate anxiety, but did not find this result for individual environmental actions such as personal recycling. However, other studies suggest that self-perceived eco-anxiety can engender feelings of “eco-paralysis,” or mental inhibition and extreme anxiety resulting in immobilization or apathy rather than serving as a productive motivator [30,31].
One factor that may contribute to feelings of climate anxiety is lack of information- or overwhelming information- about climate change and its effects. Exposure to climate change information through media heavily influences stress and mental health [5]. Additionally, others’ indifference and ignorance to the climate crisis and lack of coordinated global action can cause great distress, leading to increases in subjective feelings of climate anxiety [32]. Frequent exposure to information about the harms of climate change, such as through social media, newspapers, and television, has been correlated with heightened rates of climate anxiety. Fritze et al. [33] observed that climate change information can be so worrying or extreme that people react with skepticism and denial, and Dodds [34] noted that climate change doubt, denial, and apathy serve as defense mechanisms against personal feelings of climate anxiety. Interestingly, research has also associated climate-related media exposure with empowerment, indicating potential productive features of the self-reported anxiety that emerges from climate media. For example, Maran and Begotti [9] found that climate anxiety in a sample of Italian students was positively correlated with both media exposure to climate change information and self-efficacy in dealing with climate change. Another study observed that newspapers and media sources in the United States are often selective in the content they portray, which influences climate perceptions. To appeal to adult readers, some sources portray youth activism against climate change in a negative light, potentially increasing fear that not enough effective work is being done. Additionally, fear of being misrepresented in media can repel climate activists from engaging productively with journalists and other members of the press, resulting in less coverage of climate change efforts and greater overall anxiety [35].
Climate anxiety is also influenced by socioeconomic status, geographic location, and culture, causing disproportionate impacts among different groups. People in more privileged social positions may feel greater self-efficacy, reducing subjective feelings of anxiety. On an objective level, historically underserved groups may be more exposed to environmental contaminants: Verbeek [36] found that high air pollution is correlated with lower household incomes and higher unemployment levels. Those lacking access to resources and living in vulnerable geographic conditions, such as in rural areas or closer to coasts, are more likely to experience climate anxiety [37]. Rural residents, who may be more likely to labor in agriculture and thus be especially dependent on the environment, are more likely to experience climate-related insomnia, obsessive thinking, panic attacks, and appetite changes or eating disorders [38]. Indigenous People, to whom the land has enhanced cultural significance, are also notably likely to experience feelings of climate anxiety [26,39,40].
Marginalized individuals belonging to stigmatized racial, gender, and economic groups are more likely to suffer stress, anxiety and other mental illness related to climate change impacts [41]. Cruz et al [9] suggest that women, especially those in vulnerable social positions, experienced greater negative mental health impacts of extreme weather events and that groups with unemployment or prior medical conditions are more likely to show mental health declines after severe weather. Obradovich et al. [42] found that multiyear temperature increases and extreme weather events are associated with declines in mental health, particularly among women and low-income groups.
Age also influences the mental health effects of climate change. Young people with developing brains, limited emotional resilience, and less experience adapting to threats may be at greater risk for personally-experienced emotional effects of climate change, including more climate stress [43]. Through conducting a global survey of young people, Hickman et al. [44] found that over half of 16–25 year olds are “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change and reported feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty regarding climate change. Nearly half of young people surveyed said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily lives, and three-quarters were fearful of the future. Experiencing extreme stress about the climate can damage brain chemistry, structure, and function, creating potential for more serious mental illness later in life [45]. Understanding age-related impacts of climate change may have important implications for the effects of climate anxiety on motivation and stress. Political orientation, climate-skepticism, and climate-anxiety may also be related; Cann, Weaver and Williams [46] conducted a social media-based analysis of climate change information and found that levels of climate skepticism were associated with political ideology and information network polarization.
Prior research on climate anxiety has often been based on measures from objective scales. Empirically-validated, impartially observed measures are an important way to compare climate anxiety levels among research participants, but as climate anxiety is subjectively perceived by each individual who experiences it, an additional way to understand it may be through self-reported assessment. As climate change continues affecting the planet, self-reported climate anxiety and broad-scale research to understand the demographic and information exposure factors associated with it have increasing importance. It is critical that populations with high likelihood of suffering from self-reported feelings of climate anxiety can be targeted for interventions, and additional exploration is needed regarding the efficacy of self-reported climate anxiety interventions given that research in this area has been limited. Therefore, we conducted research to assess factors associated with self-reported climate change anxiety and potential interventions.
Conventional measures of climate anxiety often rely on diagnostic tools which, despite their rigor and psychometric validation, can result in a limited understanding of the phenomenon. These frameworks tend to prioritize severe, debilitating symptoms, such as paralyzing fear or overwhelming hopelessness, as the standard for diagnosing climate anxiety. As a result, only a small subset of individuals who experience climate-related distress meet the criteria for what these tools consider climate-anxiety [24]. This may lead to an underestimation of how widespread concerns about climate change actually are, as many people who experience milder, but still impactful, forms of climate anxiety are overlooked [44]. Trusting people to assess and report on their own emotional states regarding climate change seems simple, but existing scales often do not ask people the simple, straightforward question: Are you anxious about climate change?
Thus, the stringent nature of conventional climate anxiety measures can fail to capture the emotional experiences people have to the climate crisis. Ironically, a person who considers themselves anxious about climate change may still be classified as having low climate anxiety depending on their scale scores [24]. When it comes to subjective emotional experience, self-perception may not be the only reality, but it is certainly a facet of reality that should not be overlooked. Many individuals experience persistent, low-level anxiety about the environment, but these feelings may not manifest in ways that are considered clinically significant. The result is that these emotions are often discounted or dismissed in formal assessments, leaving many people who identify as climate anxious feeling misunderstood or invalidated [12]. Nuance and analytical rigor is critically important in the study of climate anxiety, but a more inclusive, person-centered approach may also be needed to gauge how environmental concerns affect mental health on a wider scale. Simple self-reported measures offer a way to bridge this gap by allowing individuals to express their personal experiences of climate anxiety without needing to conform to external standards. By moving beyond conventional standards, we can support a wider range of individuals in their emotional response to the climate crisis and ensure that interventions are designed with their lived experiences in mind [24,44].
Methods
Ethics statement
An English-language online survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to collect data about climate change attitudes. Institutional Review Board (IRB) exemption was received from WIRB-Copernicus Group IRB, an IRB specializing in medical and public health research reviews. WIRB-Copernicus Group IRB classified the survey as exempt because it was an anonymous survey and no personally identifying information (PII) was collected from respondents. Formal consent was not obtained because survey data was collected anonymously. Survey participation was identified as voluntary in the electronic survey invitation, and participants acknowledged they were free to leave the study at any time without penalty before starting the survey.
Survey development and implementation
The survey instrument was developed based on review of the literature and, to the authors’ knowledge, did not contain copyrighted material. It was programmed using AYTM online survey development and deployment software. AYTM is a research software company that maintains a survey panel of over 100 million potential respondents in 40 countries. Potential US respondents were invited by text message and email to participate in an online, English-language survey to collect data about climate change attitudes. These potential respondents had previously agreed to participate in surveys for research purposes. Approximately N = 5,000 potential respondents were invited to participate in the survey and a sample of N = 2,000 US adults aged 18 + completed the survey, a 40% response rate. While this response rate was somewhat low, demographic comparisons to US residents were planned as part of the data analysis. At the beginning of the survey, respondents were informed of the purposes of the study and agreed to participate voluntarily. Survey respondents consisted of a broad range of ages, races, ethnic backgrounds, income levels, and geographic origins across the US. Data collection was started and completed in February 2022.
The survey aimed to assess factors associated with self-reported climate anxiety and potential interventions to reduce its negative effects on mental health and quality of life, while retaining environmental engagement. At the beginning of the survey, respondents were asked to indicate their age and their country of residence and to provide their consent to participate in a survey about climate change. People under age 18 and/or currently living outside the US were terminated from the study.
In the first portion of the survey, respondents indicated their knowledge, beliefs, behavior, and emotions regarding climate change. The complexity and measurement of negative emotional responses to climate change has been the subject of much exploration and discussion. Measures from numerous scholarly approaches were reviewed, including those of Clayton and Karazsia [18], Coffey et al. [47], Helm et al. [48], Hogg et al. [49], Stanley et al. [17] and Stewart [50]. However, simplicity and self-identification was prioritized. In the next section of the survey, respondents answered questions regarding demographics. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.28.0 statistical analysis software. First, logistic regression analysis was done to understand predictors of climate anxiety. Then, χ2 tests were conducted to examine the relationship of climate anxiety with attitudes and behavior.
In both the logistic regression and the χ2 tests, assessment of self-reported climate-anxiety focused on responses to the question “Does climate change make you feel anxious?” Our measure aimed to assess how self-reported climate anxiety may relate to wellbeing and personal actions, which were best assessed through self-reports. Self-reports also allowed more users to provide data on their personal outlooks on their own lives, with the aim of providing a broader, more inclusive assessment of climate anxiety.
Results
The survey sample consisted of a range of ages, relationship statuses, education levels and racial/ethnic backgrounds (see Table 1). More females than males completed the survey, but other characteristics such as race and ethnicity mirrored US population values, as measured by the US Census. More than one quarter of survey respondents (26%) indicated anxiety about climate change, and the remainder did not (74%) (see Fig 1).
Climate anxiety predictors
In the logistic regression model, self-reported climate anxiety served as the dependent variable and demographics and climate change information exposure were independent variables. The model correctly classified 92% of those without self-reported climate anxiety, substantially higher than the 74% correct classification expected by the null model. The model also correctly classified 33% of those with self-reported climate anxiety, significantly better than the 26% correct classification expected by the null model (see Fig 1). The overall model had a significant fit at p < .0001. The Nagelkerke R2 = .296, so about one third of the variation in the data was explained by the model (see Table 2). This is a moderately strong result for a social science model.
Factors including familiarity with climate change, political party, and education did not serve as significant predictors of self-reported climate anxiety in the logistic regression model (see Table 2). Frequency of media exposure about climate change was associated with self-reported climate anxiety: in general, less frequent self-reported media exposure was associated with lack of climate anxiety. Similarly, infrequency of climate discussions with friends and family was associated with lack of self-reported climate anxiety. People who felt it would be a long time before climate change impacted them personally were less likely to report being anxious, as were males and older people.
Climate anxiety correlates
The significance of association between self-reported climate-anxiety and respondents’ attitudes and behavior were examined using χ2 analysis. Those who indicated no anxiety about climate change were significantly more likely than those with self-reported climate anxiety to say that climate change is harmless, a hoax, not going to affect their daily life, and exaggerated (all comparisons p < .05, see Fig 2). People who did not self-report climate anxiety were also significantly more likely to say that climate change is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment (28.2% vs. 15.8%, p < .05). Those with self-reported climate anxiety were significantly more likely than those without self-reported climate anxiety to say climate change is something almost all scientists agree about, is caused mostly by human activities, is real, and is already happening (all comparisons p < .05). Interestingly, only about half (52.3%) of those without climate anxiety said they believe climate change is real.
People without self-reported climate anxiety were significantly more likely to say that information about climate change is fake, one-sided, not trustworthy, and too political (all comparisons p < .05, see Fig 3). More than a third (35.2%) of those who did not self-report climate anxiety said information about climate chance is too political vs. 25.0% of those with self-reported climate anxiety (p < .05). Those reporting climate change anxiety were significantly more likely to say that information about climate change is hard to understand, confusing and overwhelming (p < .05); nearly half (47.0%) of climate-anxious respondents said climate change information is overwhelming vs. just 19.9% of respondents without self-reported climate anxiety (p < .05).
Respondents were also asked to indicate whether they felt other emotions about climate change. People without self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to say they felt skeptical (16.2% vs. 8.9%, p < .05, see Fig 4). People with self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to report a range of emotions, such as being motivated and interested regarding climate change, as well as feeling depressed, angry, sad, overwhelmed, frustrated, and worried (all comparisons p < .05). The survey also asked respondents to report how climate change is affecting their mental health, if at all. The results showed 84.7% of those who did not self-report climate anxiety said their mental health was unaffected by climate change vs. 48.4% of those with climate change anxiety (p < .05). Nearly half (45.5%) of those with self-reported climate anxiety said climate change made their mental health somewhat worse (vs. only 11.5% of those not reporting climate anxiety, p < .05) and 6.2% (vs. 3.8%, p < .05) said climate change made their mental health a lot worse (see Fig 5). People who reported climate change anxiety were significantly more likely to indicate that their climate anxiety negatively impacted their wellbeing and quality of life, stating that their concerns about climate change made it harder to get school/work assignments done (5.2% vs. 2.8%), have fun with family and friends (7.5% vs. 2.6%), and concentrate (10.2% vs. 4.2%) (all comparisons p < .05, see Fig 6).
Potential solutions
People who self-reported climate anxiety were significantly more likely to report environmentally-conscious behaviors, such as being vegetarian, driving an electric/hybrid car, using public transportation, voting with relation to climate issues, recycling, reducing energy usage, and having confidence that their actions can impact climate change (p < .05, see Fig 7). People who reported climate anxiety were more likely to support environmental or climate change-related organizations and charities through donating time or money (24.7% vs. 10.2%, p < .05, see Fig 8). They were also significantly more likely to support many other types of charitable organizations, such as animal charities, human and social services, and health charities (p < .05). People without self-reported climate change anxiety were significantly more likely to support religious organizations (19.3% vs. 14.6%, p < .05). Of respondents not involved with environmental organizations, those with self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to cite structural barriers like lack of time, access, awareness, or experience (comparisons p < .05, see Fig 9). People without self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to cite lack of interest as the reason why they do not volunteer for or donate to environmental causes (17.0% vs. 6.4%, p < .05).
Those who did not report having climate anxiety were more likely to say that climate anxiety would be reduced by less emphasis on climate change among government leaders and less media coverage of climate change (both comparisons p < .05, see Fig 10). People with self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to state that their stress would be reduced by personal actions such as donating money or time to environmental causes, learning more about current climate change reduction efforts, and learning how they can help climate change efforts (all comparisons p < .05) Those who reported climate anxiety were also more likely to emphasize the importance of institutional efforts in reducing climate anxiety, including the need for additional laws to mitigate climate change and scientific research into renewable energy sources (comparisons p < .05).
Discussion
Based on the logistic regression model results, self-reported climate change anxiety was associated with greater frequency of hearing about climate change in the media and discussing climate change with friends and family. However, the direction of causality was not clear: media exposure to climate change information and talking about it might cause self-reported climate change anxiety, or people who are already worried about climate change might seek out information and want to talk about it with others. Younger age and female gender were also associated with greater likelihood of climate change anxiety. Furthermore, people who thought climate change would happen further into the future were less likely to report climate change anxiety. These results support prior research that has shown that females have higher baseline levels of general anxiety, which may contribute to their likelihood to perceive their own feelings of climate change anxiety [51]. Young people, especially if they expect climate change to cause damage in the shorter-term future, would logically be more anxious about climate change because they may anticipate that their lives overall will be more affected by it than older people. This indicates that several demographic factors must be recognized when developing tailored, targeted solution strategies to self-reported climate anxiety.
Some variables in the logistic regression did not have the expected relationship with self-reported climate anxiety. Self-defined familiarity with climate change was not significantly associated with self-reported climate change anxiety. It was hypothesized that the greater knowledge that people felt they had about climate change, the more anxious they report feeling, but the model did not support this. Political party affiliation and education levels also did not have significant relationships with self-reported climate change anxiety, despite prior research suggesting that more politically conservative and less educated survey respondents would be less likely to report feelings of climate change anxiety.
The results identified both positive and negative correlates of self-reported climate change anxiety. People with self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to say that climate change makes them feel hopeless, tense, and troubled and made their mental health a lot or somewhat worse. Additionally, people who self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to feel that their climate concerns damaged their ability to work productively, concentrate, and enjoy free time with friends and family, indicating the damaging toll climate anxiety may take on subjective personal wellbeing. However, the research also suggested opportunities to leverage self-reported climate anxiety to produce a positive social impact. For example, those reporting climate change anxiety were more likely to report taking action in their daily lives to reduce their environmental footprint, such as looking for ways to reduce energy usage, recycle, and use public transportation. Those with self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to say that climate change makes them feel motivated and interested, and were more likely to volunteer and/or donate to environmental organizations. Because climate anxiety has a complex structure of both productive motivation and inhibitive stress, it is important to identify solution strategies that will exert the greatest positive impact on mental health while fighting apathy and retaining climate engagement.
To this end, the research identified several potential solutions to mitigate those mentally harmful and counterproductive aspects of climate anxiety, including behavioral strategies, a potential indicated by previous studies. Those with self-reported climate anxiety were more likely to believe that environmental volunteering would reduce their anxiety. This may be because volunteering offers opportunities to directly affect the local environment and create a personal impact, which may soothe anxiety about lack of involvement or feelings of helplessness. Those who did not volunteer, but still reported climate anxiety, cited a lack of experience or awareness of how to get involved. To combat this, environmental organizations may have an opportunity to promote volunteering initiatives and organize easy-to-access climate volunteering events for diverse communities. Those with self-reported climate anxiety were also more likely to say that increasing information on climate change causes, effects, and current mitigation efforts would reduce their anxiety, as well as climate change information that is easier to understand. People who reported climate anxiety were more likely to hear about it frequently in the media, but felt information about climate change is overwhelming and hard to find and understand. To prevent media from exacerbating climate anxiety, clear and concise information about climate change and the science behind it should be promoted in ways that are easy to understand and accessible to broader populations.
The results supported previous findings about climate anxiety as motivating environmentally conscious behaviors and support of climate charities, but this effect is counterbalanced by the potential for worsened quality of life through damaged mental health and discouraging emotions. The research built on previous findings by identifying specific negative impacts of self-reported climate anxiety, such as trouble focusing and enjoying free time.
Limitations include that the research was conducted only in English and among US residents. As the survey was conducted online, individuals without Internet access were unable to respond. The self-reported environmental and charitable behavior results may have been affected by events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented many from volunteering in-person and may have increased climate anxiety rates. Furthermore, survey respondents had previously agreed to participate in research projects by being part of the survey panel used to conduct the research. These people may not fully represent the US population. The response rate of 40%, while on the lower side and less than 100%, is adequate for an online survey; it is possible that the people who did not respond to the survey invitation were different than those who did complete the survey. However, it was reassuring that the respondents’ demographic characteristics largely mirrored US Census population values. As a pilot study, our survey used a single-arm design, which carries limitations including no comparator arm and lack of random allocation to groups. This should be kept in mind when interpreting the results and statistics. Future research should consider utilizing a control group or comparison arm, with allocation to each group randomly done, to strengthen the statistics and interpretation of results.
The potential climate anxiety solutions are based on self-reports about factors that survey respondents thought would decrease their climate anxiety. However, people are sometimes not the best predictors of their own future reactions [52]. Despite this limitation, even if actions that respondents felt could mitigate climate anxiety would not immediately do so, they could nonetheless have societal benefits. Participation in activities like volunteering could increase social cohesion and community connections, which previous research has shown to have positive effects on psychological resilience and anxiety reduction, as well as other beneficial health outcomes [27,51,53–56]. Additionally, there is a possibility that characterizations of self-reported climate anxiety were inaccurate, as respondents may have not admitted to experiencing anxiety about the climate, or did not take action, in an effort to distance themselves from the issue. Furthermore, although using a single question to measure climate anxiety self-perceptions is straightforward for research participants, additional survey assessment scales, such as that covered in Homburg et al. [57], could be used in further research to assess climate anxiety self-reports more robustly. The study also did not cover personal experiences with climate-influenced weather changes. Demski et al. [58] found that personal experience with extreme weather events like floods significantly increases people’s judgments of the importance of climate change as a social issue and their level of personal risk. Future research should further explore the relationship of personal experience with climate-change-driven events, such as droughts or wildfires, with self-reported climate anxiety.
Conclusions
The results suggest that media exposure to climate change information was associated with higher likelihood of self-reported climate anxiety, but that self-defined level of knowledge about climate change was not significantly related to climate anxiety likelihood. These results may be related to climate anxious individuals’ significantly higher likelihood to see climate change information as confusing, overwhelming, or hard to understand. Those who reported climate anxiety were significantly more likely to indicate that more information about climate change’s causes, effects, and current efforts would reduce their anxiety. Developing and distributing straightforward climate change information may reduce maladaptive climate anxiety associated with media exposure while ensuring that these individuals remain accurately informed about the issue. However, strategies utilizing the media to combat such climate anxiety must also consider the challenge of absorbing intense, often discouraging climate change information and providing factual information that is not daunting or overwhelming. More research is needed to explore the relationship between media exposure, knowledge, and feelings of climate anxiety, as well as which adaptations may most effectively reduce self-perceived climate anxiety and its association with media. Future studies should analyze different coping strategies and community approaches and how these may affect individual responses to solutions to better understand the complexity of climate anxiety and develop appropriate initiatives.
The findings support previous research about positive and negative effects of climate anxiety and confirmed the hypothesis that anxiety about climate change could be reduced through behavioral strategies such as volunteering and information campaigns. It identified that self-reported climate anxiety is a motivating factor encouraging people to act, as well as a damaging condition reducing quality of life. The study expanded upon past research efforts that proposed behavioral strategies to reduce the effects of climate anxiety by finding a significant association between volunteering efforts and predicted anxiety reduction. This is a solution with great potential, as volunteering for environmental organizations can reduce the negative effects of self-perceived climate anxiety while retaining motivation and interest and positively impacting the environment. To encourage more people to volunteer, our study identified the importance of promoting information on how to get involved and encouraging newcomers. Future experimental research could test the impact of environmental volunteering to establish these effects more directly.
The research further explored the role of media and information on subjective perceptions of climate anxiety, indicating that climate change media can be overwhelming and contribute to higher rates of reported anxiety. It is important to cover climate change information in a way that is easy to understand by all populations. The media could also be used to promote information about how to get involved with local environmental volunteer groups, helping to encourage more people to get involved and reduce self-reported climate anxiety. Media and online services can also be utilized to provide better climate mental health treatment access. In recent years, the damaging effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent mitigation efforts resulted in broad increases in anxiety, depression, stress, and worry [59,60]. Thus, Taylor [3] notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated rapid online mental health service delivery, and that these advances could be adapted to help address climate anxiety.
Women and adolescents showed a greater likelihood of reporting climate anxiety. Efforts and interventions to reduce self-reported climate anxiety should be especially tailored towards women and youth to combat this effect; however, future research should concentrate on interpretations for self-reported climate anxiety among males and possible reasons for not recognizing or reporting stress about the climate. McCright & Dunlap [61] found that politically conservative white males were more likely than other Americans to deny climate change, which may influence apathy towards the climate or less willingness to report climate anxiety in an attempt to ignore the issue. The lack of a statistically significant relationship between education, political party membership, and self-reported climate anxiety was unexpected, potentially due to the complexity of climate anxiety and its applications, and merits further study. Future research should also delve deeper into the association of self-reported climate anxiety with age, gender, and other demographic factors. Potential extensions to the research could include asking more questions surrounding age and youth perceptions of climate change, as well as questions designed to measure the unique experiences of underrepresented racial, gender, and economic groups. Mixed-methods research could also be used to understand respondents’ experiences, attitudes and associations more deeply. Qualitative exploration has not yet been widely used in environmental epidemiology research but has great promise to better understand causality and develop effective interventions [62].
As this area of research expands, additional surveys should be conducted in multiple languages and with larger sample sizes to reduce the limitations of the study and further establish the robustness and reproducibility of the findings. Future research could also evaluate groups of people with and without self-reported climate anxiety and assess the direct effects of different volunteering efforts or types of media exposure on maladaptive anxiety reduction.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank their institutions and their reviewers for their contributions and support.
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