Abstract
Climate change worry involves primarily verbal-linguistic thoughts about the changes that may occur in the climate system and the possible effects of these changes. Such worry is one of several possible psychological responses (e.g., fear, anxiety, depression, and trauma) to climate change. Within this article, the psychometric development of the ten-item Climate Change Worry Scale (CCWS) is detailed in three studies. The scale was developed to assess proximal worry about climate change rather than social or global impacts. Study 1 provided evidence that the CCWS items were internally consistent, constituted a single factor, and that the facture structure of the items was invariant for men and women. The results from Study 1 also indicated a good fit with a Rasch model of the items. Study 2 affirmed the internal consistency of the CCWS items and indicated that peoples’ responses to the measure were temporally stable over a two-week test–retest interval (r = 0.91). Study 3 provided support for the convergent and divergent validity of the CCWS through its pattern of correlations with several established clinical and weather-related measures. The limitations of the studies and the possible uses of the CCWS were discussed. The current work represents a starting point.
Highlights
The correlations of the Climate Change Worry Scale (CCWS) with the with the other measures in Study 3 appear in. This result suggested that the type of general and broad worry that characterizes high scorers on the PSWQ does not contribute in a noteworthy way to the specific worry people expressed about climate change, and supports the instrument’s divergent validity Similar to the results from Study 1, political orientation was related in a statistically significant and noteworthy way with CCWS scores
An increasingly democratic, liberal political orientation was associated with increasing levels of climate change worry
When controlling for the associations of the Stress subscale, the CCWS correlations with the Anxiety and depression subscales were not statistically significant. These results suggested that the emotional state of stress was more strongly related to climate change worry
Summary
The participants were 600 undergraduate and graduate students from a large public university in the southeastern United States; the sample contained 300 each of men and women. The racial composition of the participant sample was: 68.0% White, 10.0% Asian, 4.3% Black, 2.7% Latinx, 2.5% Indian subcontinent, and 12.5% multiracial or other race. The participants were provided with an overview of the research and completed a written informed consent document. They completed the CCWS and were excused. Participants again completed the CCWS and were provided with a written debriefing statement that summarized the purposes of the research. 58.9% of the respondents indicated that they were liberal or liberal leaning and
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