The nature of climate anxiety

Climate change worries people, youth included, in different ways. It threatens people and places we love. It threatens people far away and future generations, as well as nature and animals. For some it is already destroying their livelihoods, cultures, and well-being. Actually experiencing extreme weather events increases individuals’ commitment to taking action, as in the response of Indigenous people to drought (Australia), Inuit people to the loss of sea ice, Indian farmers to temperatures that destroy their crops, and Inupiat communities to flooding (NW Alaska).

How do children respond? Before adolescence, they may not have the capacity to comprehend the complexity and enormity of the problems. Ojala’s research finds that younger children are less prone to pessimism than older youth, who have greater capacity to comprehend the gravity of the situation.

The link between climate change worry and psychological well-being is not straightforward. Climate change anxiety can be associated with environment-friendly behaviors, as found in studies in Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the United States. It does not reliably predict poor mental well-being. Children with higher self-efficacy, or who have less to worry about on a day-to-day basis, may be more likely to have enough energy to worry about climate change and have adequate resources to engage positively.

Parents and teachers have a vital role in shaping how children react to climate change anxiety.

How children deal with climate anxiety

In her research, which is based on questionnaire responses by children, youth, and young adults, Ojala has articulated three coping strategies.

Problem focused. Children and young people seek information about what to do and take individual action, such as cycling to school, eating less meat, and saving energy. The danger in this response is that the burden of individual responsibility can harm children’s well-being. Some children undertake actions together as a group, providing a sense of solidarity. Older children are more likely than younger children to make a problem-focused response, perhaps because they are more mature and have more individual agency.

Emotion focused. Children and young people seek to manage their emotions in response to the anxiety. A small proportion of children simply deny climate change. Others just avoid the information and distract themselves with other things. Yet others seek social support, discussing the issue with people around them. A few older youth ruminate darkly, vent anger, and fall into fatalism.

“Ojala presents three recommendations about what teachers and parents can do to support children to respond positively to climate change.”

Meaning focused. Children and young people seek out positive aspects of the situation, for example, the overall increase in global awareness and action or the probability of solutions being found eventually. They have trust – in the science, in technology, in what others are doing, in environmental organizations, and in politicians. A leading global youth campaign, Fridays for the Future, is founded on trust in science.

How teachers and parents can support children to engage with climate change

Ojala presents three recommendations about what teachers and parents can do to support children to respond positively to climate change. She argues that more evaluation of particular approaches is needed, but in the meantime, she builds on youth’s responses to her questionnaires.

1. Support a problem-focused response. Teachers should show concrete examples of pro-environmental behavior. Offering specific examples, rather than getting children to search for and plan actions, helps avoid the risk of children feeling the burden of individual responsibility. Teachers can encourage children to come together to build a sense of togetherness around action.
2. Support an emotion-focused response. Teachers and parents should take seriously children’s fears and emotions about climate change, acknowledging, validating, and encouraging discussion about them. Ojala recommends promoting “critical emotional awareness.” For example, children could be invited to consider what emotions are “allowed,” whose emotions are taken seriously, how boys and girls might react differently, why different children react differently, or the difference between individual and collective responses.
3. Support a meaning-focused response. Teachers can promote hope and trust by inviting climate actors from different generations into schools to share their contributions to tackling climate change. Teachers and parents can turn the discussion to one about values, such as caring for people who are suffering and for animals. These adults can introduce children and youth to opportunities to act collectively with other young people, for example, by taking part in youth climate campaigns.

As teachers and parents themselves become more aware of the climate crisis – driven largely by the campaigns of young people – the challenge of raising children in the shadow of such a threat becomes more and more acute. Ojala provides a useful set of actions that parents and teachers can take, based on what children and young people themselves say about what works.

The Climate Psychology Alliance lists resources and networks for young people, resources for parents, teachers and carers, and courses on climate psychology. 

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It is important to help children manage their fears and worries about climate change — but also help them know they can contribute to addressing climate change challenges. Feeling agency to do something effective is an essential part of managing fear. So is the social trust that comes with knowing that you are not alone, that other people share the same concerns, and other people are also taking action.

Let your child know that fears about climate change are understandable and other people share them.

If your son or daughter has said something that suggests concern about climate change, create a quiet time to listen openly. Young people who say that family members and friends listen sympathetically and suggest solutions are more likely to report that they are acting to protect the planet and to express hope for the future. Let your child know that fears about climate change are understandable and other people share them.

Also, let your child know that other people are taking climate change seriously and finding ways to address it. Some children say they are doing what they can to mitigate climate change, such as walking or biking to school instead of letting their parents drive them; yet they still report high levels of worry. This is not surprising because when people know that a problem is larger than they can solve by themselves, they can feel that their actions are futile. Most young people report taking individual actions, rather than working together with others.

Photo: Keira Burton. Pexels.

Look for ways that action to protect the planet can be a family activity. Many children express alarm about the impacts of climate change on wildlife and other animals, so you might create a wildlife habitat together in your yard or on a city balcony — and see for yourself that when you plant it, birds, butterflies, and other creatures threatened by changing temperatures find refuge there. You might raise money for a local environmental organization addressing climate change, and visit the organization to learn what they are doing. When you see news stories about people taking constructive action — from politicians to schoolchildren — share the stories with your children. Besides the intrinsic value of these activities, they show your child that individual action matters as well as collective action, because everyone can make a difference together.

Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman, psychologists who have studied how people cope with difficult conditions and upsetting information, describe two forms of coping: emotion focused, which seeks to escape painful feelings, and problem focused, which addresses the problems that cause these feelings. Sharing feelings with sympathetic and supportive family and friends is a healthy form of emotion-focused coping. It helps protect children against escapist strategies that avoid reality by tuning out information about climate change or denying that it is real or serious. Problem-focused coping includes both individual and collective action.

Look for ways that action to protect the planet can be a family activity.

Susan Folkman identified a third form of coping, meaning focused, that is especially helpful for big, complex problems that require engagement over a long period of time — like climate change. This type of coping involves finding a silver lining in a problem and meaning in confronting it. For example, some young people believe that because climate change is such a serious problem, more people are becoming aware of it, and as a result, more people are acting to steer the world in a safer direction.

Children who report meaning-focused coping are more likely to express constructive hope — the ability to face risks and uncertainty, believe in the power of their own actions and the actions of others, and find positive value in action. By acknowledging your child’s emotions, supporting individual initiative, and finding ways to take effective action together, you can help buffer your child against fears about climate change by building a foundation for constructive hope.

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According to the World Health Organisation, children will suffer 80% of the illnesses, injuries and deaths attributable to climate change.

“The well-being and even survival of today’s children are at risk, ” according to a paper on the impacts of the climate crisis on children and youth from the Society for Research in Child Development.

What do children suffer?

According to the World Health Organisation, children will suffer 80% of the illnesses, injuries and deaths attributable to climate change. Children are harmed by both sudden climate change events (e.g., floods and fires) and long-term climate changes (e.g., droughts and rising sea levels). Children will experience:

• Heat-related illness
• Exposure to environmental toxins
• Infectious, gastrointestinal and parasitic diseases that spread in warmer temperatures
• Malnutrition
• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (an example: after the floods in Pakistan in 2010, 73% of 10- to 19-year-olds displayed high levels of PTSD)
• Depression and anxiety
• Sleep problems
• Cognitive deficits and learning problems

Past research has shown that children’s reactions to extreme weather events include distress, grief, anger, loss of identity, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, higher rates of suicide, and increased aggression and violence.

All these are direct impacts of climate change. Then there are indirect impacts: food shortages, intergroup conflict, economic dislocation and forced migration. Younger children are impacted when their parents’ well-being is undermined. For example, after hurricanes, levels of domestic violence rise. Children’s education is also jeopardized; flooding and droughts are followed by declines in school attendance. Forced migration is followed by trauma and behaviour problems among children.

Things are worse for children in low- and middle-income countries

Low- and middle-income countries are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, both through their geographical position and because they have less infrastructure and capacity to respond to climate change. Eighty-five percent of the world’s children live in these regions. Climate change is described as the single biggest threat to development throughout the world, undermining the sustainable development goals set for poverty, hunger, health and well-being, education, water and sanitation, peace and justice.

How children should be supported (but are not)

The key to supporting children and young people in such circumstances is to give them agency. The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children have the right to participate in and influence decision-making processes that are relevant to their lives.

Yet this has not happened to any significant extent. There have been few adult-initiated programs to help young people respond to the threats of climate change, and little research in this area. Few resources are available to guide parents and other adults about what do to for children.

In response, perhaps unsurprisingly, young people have taken matters into their own hands. All over the world, theyhave taken action.

As just one example—other than the best known of all, Greta Thunberg—in 2018, 25 young plaintiffs won a case in the Colombian Supreme Court against deforestation in the Amazon on the grounds that it threatened their rights to a healthy environment. Millions of children are now demonstrating all over the world.

These youth activists are showing the psychological value of taking action to address the crisis – they commonly report how taking action has helped them deal with their previously debilitating anxiety, fear and anger, and has built their resilience and hopefulness as well as teaching them many life skills.

What adults must do for child development in the face of climate change

Such action by children and young people cannot absolve adults of responsibility, particularly given that if this generation of leaders fail to take effective action, it will be too late.

Those who support child development globally should focus on the 85% of children in the developing world – those most affected by climate change. However, all children will need to cope with climate change impacts, and with the massive changes involved in the shift to a zero-carbon economy.

Key skills that young people will need in the future include empathy, belief in social justice, adaptability and creativity, negotiation and conflict-resolution, collaboration, and civic engagement.

Developmental psychologists need to ensure that the climate crisis is comprehensively covered in psychology education and training. Funding bodies should prioritise research and support for children around climate change.

Finally, child development scientists should themselves become involved in advocacy and education of decision-makers, colleagues and the public about the magnitude of the threat of climate change to today’s children.

“The climate crisis represents a massive threat to our children’s well-being and survival. As such, it poses an unprecedented challenge to those with responsibility for the well-being of children and youth, and requires us to take on new roles as a matter of urgency,” the paper says.

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Less ozone and fine particulate pollution from reduced fossil fuel should reduce infant mortality and respiratory disease, and raise productivity at work.

Cutting the use of fossil fuels won’t just help fight climate change — children should also become healthier and more successful in life, thanks to less exposure to pollution associated with burning fossil fuels, according to our calculations.

Burning fossil fuels produces not only carbon dioxide (CO₂)—the most important greenhouse gas — but many other air pollutants that affect health. For example, power plants are major sources of CO₂, but they also emit high levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which lead to the formation of ozone and fine particulate matter (particles up to 2.5 microns in size, or PM_2.5). Therefore, policies that reduce the use of fossil fuels should also lower emissions that affect local air quality. The health effects of using less fossil fuel are called “co-benefits”.

Pollution poses its greatest threat to children

Rapid biological development during childhood suggests that children are particularly sensitive to pollution exposure. They are believed to suffer greater effects from pollution than adults do. Younger children are more affected than older ones, which implies that the same dose of pollution has a greater impact if it occurs earlier in life.

“Our projections suggest that reducing climate change emissions would significantly improve child wellbeing. Infant mortality and respiratory diseases would decrease. More children would experience healthier childhoods, survive into adulthood, build key skills, and become more productive adults.”

How do ozone and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) damage children’s wellbeing? Ozone primarily irritates the lungs. It can cause shortness of breath and coughing; it can inflame and damage the lung lining; and it can aggravate lung diseases such as asthma. Quite low concentrations can cause these symptoms at any time, from within a few hours of exposure to several days later.

PM_2.5 penetrates deep into the lungs and passes into the bloodstream, affecting both the lungs and the heart. It can reduce lung function and increase respiratory symptoms such as airway irritation, difficulty breathing, and asthma. It can also induce heart attacks or irregular heartbeat. These respiratory and cardiovascular complications can lead to premature death. As with ozone, the effects can appear either quickly or several days after exposure, and they can arise at quite low concentration levels.

Pollution can damage their life-long prospects

Beyond those immediate effects, childhood exposure to ozone and particulate matter can cause long-term damage to children’s health and reduce their ability to build skills, knowledge and experience that help people to succeed in life. For example, frequent asthma attacks can cut into school attendance and academic performance, ultimately affecting a child’s ability to make a living as an adult.

Moreover, latent effects may appear years after pollution exposure. Evidence increasingly shows that the nine months in the womb and the first few years of life are critical periods for physiological development, when toxic exposures can have lasting impacts. Pollution may permanently alter the way genes function, harming intellectual growth and maturity later in life.

Cuts in pollution emissions would improve children’s wellbeing

Atmospheric concentrations of ozone and particulate matter are linked to heat and other climatic variables in complex ways. It’s not easy to quantify how much a particular policy to cut carbon emissions would affect children’s wellbeing by also reducing ozone and PM_2.5. However, we tackled this question for a recent issue of the journal Future of Children. We reviewed researchers’ estimates from models that project how US pollution levels would change over the next few decades under various scenarios for cutting carbon emissions to fight climate change. We then combined the projected pollution changes with estimates from rigorous studies of how childhood pollution exposure affects various outcomes for children, including infant mortality, respiratory diseases and productivity at work.

Our projections suggest that reducing climate change emissions would significantly improve child wellbeing. Infant mortality and respiratory diseases would decrease. More children would experience healthier childhoods, survive into adulthood, build key skills, and become more productive adults. Those projected benefits arise not only when we compare the air quality we would expect to see under policies to reduce emissions with today’s air quality, but also when we compare it with air quality in the future if we make no effort to cut emissions. On the other hand, if we don’t cut greenhouse gas emissions, we’re unlikely to see much change in children’s wellbeing compared with today’s situation.

Our projections encompass many unknowns, so we should be cautious about accepting them at face value. Projections for future climate are filled with uncertainty, as are projections of the climate’s relationship to emissions. There are also uncertainties about how mitigation policies would affect pollution levels. But, given the need to act in the face of considerable risks, we hope that our calculations serve as a useful starting point.

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