High School Students’ Psychological Distances to Climate Change in Rural Southern Maryland

Abstract

With the academic consensus thoroughly agreeing that climate change is anthropogenic, research is examining the public’s perceptions of climate change through the psychological distance framework to ultimately develop climate change prevention strategies. Researchers generally agree that psychological proximity predicts climate concern, and concern predicts action. To fill the gap in the research surrounding youth perceptions of climate change, this study investigates students’ psychological distance to climate change in a rural southern Maryland high school. Analysis of participants’ open-ended and closed-ended responses suggest that youth who have been exposed to firsthand climate change-associated events and impacts tend to have proximal perceptions of climate change and high climate concern. This research supports direct and interactive exposure to impacted ecosystems to proximize climate change, influence climate concern, and ultimately encourage action. Future research should investigate youths’ perceptions in developing countries and other climate sensitive locations, as well as using experimental approaches to further investigate the relationship between psychological distance, concern, and action in youth populations.