Review: The impact of climate change awareness on children’s mental well-being and negative emotions—A scoping review
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Climate change is a threat to children's physical health, but there are also implications for mental well-being. Additionally, children may experience negative emotional responses stemming from an overarching awareness of the imminent threats to the planet due to climate change. METHOD: Using a scoping review, we examined the impact of climate change awareness on children's mental well-being and negative emotions. Our aim was to identify and describe the existing literature and highlight priorities for future research. Three specific objectives guided the review: (1) to identify and provide an overview of research regarding the impact of climate change awareness on children's mental well-being and negative emotions; (2) to summarize and clarify the terminology related to climate change awareness and children's mental well-being and negative emotions; and (3) to make recommendations for areas of future research. RESULTS: Thirty-three articles were included in a narrative synthesis. Many articles were reviews or editorials/commentaries. Of the empirical research, most were from Europe, North America, and Australia. The articles emphasized a large range of negative emotions that children felt about climate change, with anxiety and worry being the most researched and discussed. CONCLUSIONS: The research on the impact of awareness of climate change on children's mental well-being and negative emotions is in its early phases. Efforts are needed to advance conceptual clarity and operationalize concepts. Additionally, there is a need for research into the impact of climate change awareness on children's mental well-being and negative emotions among a greater diversity of people and places. Existing studies provide an encouraging basis from which to develop future research.
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Mental health and wellbeing of young people are impacted by an awareness of the imminent threat, climate change-related anxiety and worry prevalent in many child populations.
“Mental health and wellbeing of young people are impacted by an awareness of the imminent threat, climate changerelated anxiety and worry prevalent in many child populations [38].”
From Climate Distress: A Review of Current Psychological Research and Practice (2023) · cites this paper as [38]
The Summary of empirical findings (page unavailable) reports that climate-change awareness is associated with mental-wellbeing impacts, anxiety and worry in many child populations. But it says the evidence *suggests* these effects are common and that prevalence may vary by demographic group; the citing sentence presents the impact and prevalence more definitively. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredInconsistent terminology causes difficulties for replicability and comparability in research and may limit the field's ability to evolve and become applicable to practice.
“This causes difficulties for replicability and comparability in research and may be limiting the ability of this field of study to evolve and become applicable to practice [8,38].”
From Climate Distress: A Review of Current Psychological Research and Practice (2023) · cites this paper as [38]
The Discussion (page unavailable) says unclear concepts may restrict replicability and comparability and thereby limit growth in the field. It does not link unclear terminology to the field’s applicability to practice, and its wording is more tentative than the claim that this causes research difficulties. The Conclusion calls for more evidence for practitioners but does not make that connection. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- © 2021 The Authors. Child and Adolescent Mental Health published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
- © 2021 The Authors. Child and Adolescent Mental Health published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
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- Authors
- Martin, G., Reilly, K., Everitt, H., & Gilliland, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Western University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Martin, Gina
- Venue
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-12-06
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 59-72
- ISSN
- 1475-357X (ISSN-L)
- 1475-3588
- OpenAlex
- W4200377304
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 10
- FWCI
- 2.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Scholarship@Western (Western University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Children's Health Research Institute
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Climate Change and Health Impacts
- Keywords
- climate change awareness, negative emotions, climate anxiety, worry, child mental health, conceptual clarity, operationalization of concepts
- MeSH terms
- Child Health, Anxiety, Child, Emotions, Humans, Mental Health, Climate Change
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