Environmental worry and wellbeing in young adult university students

Abstract

Climate change presents a universal threat, communal to different sciences. Despite the various consequences that are already well known, little attention has been paid towards the effects these changes may have on mental health when clinical cases of worry about the future impacts of climate change start to emerge. This study aims to explore how 110 Portuguese young adult university students' worry regarding different environmental problems, and associated affect, relates to psychological symptoms and life satisfaction. Coping strategies employed to deal with this worry were also assessed and examined how they influence the relationship between environmental worry and wellbeing. Questionnaires were used, following a correlational methodology in addition to linear regression analyses. Results show young adults report a moderate-to-high level of environmental worry, mainly associated with negative affect. This worry, especially when regarding the self and the close social network, is positively associated with symptoms, which are in turn negatively associated with life satisfaction. Coping strategies mediate the connection between worry and symptoms, being positively associated with both. The importance of including measures of environmental worry in climate change risk assessments is underlined, as well as the need to include new therapeutic strategies to be used alongside problem-focused coping in a clinical setting, and the possible implications of affect on sustainable behaviour in general.