On the nature of

Eco-anxiety is the distress caused by climate change where people are becoming anxious about their future. The present scoping reveiw critically evaluated and synthesized the scholarly literature on eco-anxiety and reported it using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) [1] . The study aims were twofold: (i) to understand how eco-anxiety was operationalized in the existing literature, and (ii) the key characteristics of eco-anxiety. Our review found that further research is needed to provide conceptual clarity of the term eco-anxiety. We found that most of the evidence comes from the Western countries, and future research is needed in the non-Western countries. Indigenous peoples, children and young people, and those connected to the natural world are most impacted by eco-anxiety and are identified as vulnerable. We recommend employing diverse methodologies to better understand their lived experiences of eco-anxiety.

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Understanding Eco-anxiety: A Systematic Scoping Review of Current Literature and Identified Knowledge Gaps

Anxiety relating to a multitude of ecological crises, or eco-anxiety, is a subject of growing research significance. We used a multi-study mixed-methods design to explore eco-anxiety in Australia and New Zealand, validating a new eco-anxiety scale. In Study One, we developed and tested a 7-item eco-anxiety scale (n = 334), finding that this captured some, but not all, experiences of eco-anxiety. We found that people were anxious about a range of environmental conditions and their personal negative impact on the planet. Notably, people’s anxiety about different environmental conditions (e.g., climate change, environmental degradation, pollution) were interconnected, lending support for the existence of eco-anxiety (a broader construct that encompasses climate change anxiety). These results informed further scale development in Study Two. Exploratory (n = 365) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n = 370) supported a final 13-item scale that captured four dimensions of eco-anxiety: affective symptoms, rumination, behavioural symptoms, and anxiety about one’s negative impact on the planet, which were each distinct from stress, anxiety and depression. A further longitudinal sample (n = 189) established the stability of these factors across time. Findings support eco-anxiety as a quantifiable psychological experience, reliably measured using our 13-item eco-anxiety scale, and differentiated from mental health outcomes.

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The Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale: Development and validation of a multidimensional scale

Climate change is an increasing threat to sustainable development worldwide. However, the dominant incremental policy approaches have not generated action at anywhere near the rate, scale or depth that is needed. This is largely due to the fact that climate change has historically been framed as a purely external, technical challenge. There is an urgent need for a more integral understanding that links internal and external (collective and systems) approaches to support transformation. However, related knowledge is scarce and fragmented across disciplines. This study addresses this gap. Through a systematic literature review, we analyse how the linkages between internal and external change are portrayed and understood in current research. We assess the scope, perspectives and approaches used to understand why, and how, internal change relates to climate action and sustainability. Our results highlight patterns and gaps regarding foci, conceptualisation, methods, epistemology, ontology and ethics that hamper emergent solutions and progress. Starting from the status quo, we propose an integrated model of change as an agenda and roadmap for future research, policy and practice.

Linking internal and external transformation for sustainability and climate action: Towards a new research and policy agenda

Abstract Converging global evidence highlights the dire consequences of climate change for human mental health and wellbeing. This paper summarises literature across relevant disciplines to provide a comprehensive narrative review of the multiple pathways through which climate change interacts with mental health and wellbeing. Climate change acts as a risk amplifier by disrupting the conditions known to support good mental health, including socioeconomic, cultural and environmental conditions, and living and working conditions. The disruptive influence of rising global temperatures and extreme weather events, such as experiencing a heatwave or water insecurity, compounds existing stressors experienced by individuals and communities. This has deleterious effects on people’s mental health and is particularly acute for those groups already disadvantaged within and across countries. Awareness and experiences of escalating climate threats and climate inaction can generate understandable psychological distress; though strong emotional responses can also motivate climate action. We highlight opportunities to support individuals and communities to cope with and act on climate change. Consideration of the multiple and interconnected pathways of climate impacts and their influence on mental health determinants must inform evidence-based interventions. Appropriate action that centres climate justice can reduce the current and future mental health burden, while simultaneously improving the conditions that nurture wellbeing and equality. The presented evidence adds further weight to the need for decisive climate action by decision makers across all scales.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09540261.2022.2128725?needAccess=true

The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing: A Narrative Review of Current Evidence, and its Implications

Climate change threatens mental health via increasing exposure to the social and economic disruptions created by extreme weather and large-scale climatic events, as well as through the anxiety associated with recognising the existential threat posed by the climate crisis. Considering the growing levels of climate change awareness across the world, negative emotions like anxiety and worry about climate-related risks are a potentially pervasive conduit for the adverse impacts of climate change on mental health. In this study, we examined how negative climate-related emotions relate to sleep and mental health among a diverse non-representative sample of individuals recruited from 25 countries, as well as a Norwegian nationally-representative sample. Overall, we found that negative climate-related emotions are positively associated with insomnia symptoms and negatively related to self-rated mental health in most countries. Our findings suggest that climate-related psychological stressors are significantly linked with mental health in many countries and draw attention to the need for cross-disciplinary research aimed at achieving rigorous empirical assessments of the unique challenge posed to mental health by negative emotional responses to climate change.

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Su Lu

Papers

Negative emotions about climate change are related to insomnia symptoms and mental health: Cross-sectional evidence from 25 countries