Role Of Emotions Research Articles

The impact of smartphone dependence on college students' sleep quality: the chain-mediated role of negative emotions and health-promoting behaviors.

Sleep disturbances among college students have become a significant issue affecting their daily lives. This study aims to explore the relationship between smartphone dependence and sleep quality and examine the mediating roles of negative emotions and health-promoting behaviors. A total of 23,652 college students were included in the study, and 21,314 valid questionnaires were collected. The survey assessed demographic factors, smartphone dependence, sleep quality, negative emotions, and health-promoting behaviors. A chain mediation analysis was conducted to examine the relationships among these factors. Smartphone dependence was significantly positively correlated with sleep quality (r = 0.272, p < 0.001) and negative emotions (r = 0.414, p < 0.001), and significantly negatively correlated with health-promoting behaviors (r = -0.178, p < 0.001). Sleep quality was positively correlated with negative emotions (r = 0.472, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with health-promoting behaviors (r = -0.218, p < 0.001).Smartphone dependence was a significant positive predictor of sleep quality. Moreover, negative emotions and health-promoting behaviors influenced the relationship between smartphone dependence and sleep quality. The total effect, direct effect, and indirect effect values were 0.304, 0.122, and 0.170, respectively. Different demographic factors (such as gender and place of residence) can lead to variations in different variables. Smartphone dependence and negative emotions have a positive impact on sleep quality among college students, while health-promoting behaviors have a negative impact. Smartphone dependence directly and positively affects sleep quality and can also influence it indirectly through the mediating effects of negative emotions and health-promoting behaviors, both individually and in a chain-like manner.

Teachers’ daily positive and negative affect and their relationship with teachers’ emotion regulation strategies and daily work engagement – results of a diary study among team teachers

Team teaching as a close form of teacher collaboration entails frequent interactions between the team-teaching partners in the classroom. During these interactions, the team teachers experience a variety of positive and negative emotions, triggered by their team partner. The teachers may express or suppress these emotions, depending on their habitual use of these emotion regulation strategies. In turn, the teachers’ daily emotions may be related to an important facet of teacher well-being, namely their daily work engagement. This study aims to investigate the related factors (habitual emotion regulation, daily work engagement) of team teachers’ daily positive and negative emotions triggered by the team partner in the classroom. Forty-seven Austrian team teachers working in secondary education completed a daily diary study, consisting of 15 diary entries, measuring their habitual emotion expression and suppression strategies, their daily positive and negative affect and daily work engagement. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted. Results show that positive and negative affect and work engagement vary substantially within and between team teachers. Random-intercept fixed-slope multilevel models indicate that the habitual use of authentic display of positive emotions is associated with daily positive affect, and teachers’ daily positive and negative affect significantly relate to their daily work engagement both on the within- and between-person level. This study underscores the important role that team teachers’ emotional experiences play regarding their work engagement. We draw theoretical and practical implications for the role of emotions during team-teaching practices.

Organisational justice and deviance in academia: Is there a moderating effect of personality?

Orientation: Social exchange theory (SET) posits that employees reciprocate injustice with workplace deviance. However, studies reveal this may not always be the case because of the differences in employees’ personality traits.Research purpose: To examine the moderating role of Honesty-Humility, Emotionality and Agreeableness (H-HEA) of the HEXACO personality domain on the relationship between organisational justice (OJ) and workplace deviance among employees of selected public universities in South-West Nigeria.Motivation for the study: It becomes imperative to study workplace deviance behaviour (WDB) because of its costs and prevalence in the organisation. Hence, this study integrates the situational and individual antecedents of workplace deviance, using the HEXACO personality domain to moderate the relationship between OJ and personality.Research approach/design and method: The study adopted a quantitative approach; a survey was conducted among 572 employees of three public universities in Nigeria. Data collected were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling.Main findings: The findings revealed that WDB reduces with OJ and increases with injustice. Essentially, the moderating effect of E-HEXACO selected by the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is found to be insignificant.Practical/managerial implications: The study recommends that university management and government alike should ensure justice in the public universities as this helps to reduce WDB.Contribution/value-add: This study proposes that employees’ personality traits will determine whether they will reciprocate feelings of injustice with deviant behaviour. This study has contributed to the literature by examining the HEXACO personality traits, which are scarcely being examined in Nigerian literature.

Temperamental Shyness, Peer Competence, and Loneliness in Middle Childhood: The Role of Positive Emotion

Guided by the conceptual frameworks of social withdrawal (Rubin, K. H., & Chronis-Tuscano, A. (2021). Perspectives on social withdrawal in childhood: Past, present, and prospects. Child Development Perspectives, 15(3), 160–167.) and emotion socialization (Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241–273.; Morris, (A) S., Criss, M. M., Silk, J. S., & Houltberg, (B) J. (2017). The impact of parenting on emotion regulation during childhood and adolescence. Child Development Perspectives, 11(4), 233–238.), the current study examined multifaceted relations among temperamental shyness, peer competence, and loneliness and focused on the role of socializing and expressing positive emotion in middle childhood. Participants included 1,364 families, among whom mothers reported children’s temperament when children were 4.5 years old. Mothers and alternative caregivers (usually fathers) independently rated family expressiveness when children were 8–9 years old. Mothers rated their children’s peer competence, and children’s positive affect with peers were observed when children were ages 8–9 and 10–11. Children self-rated their loneliness levels at ages 10–11. A path model revealed a moderated mediation effect, such that family positive expressiveness moderated the sequential mediation pathway from child temperamental shyness through child peer competence at ages 8–9 and positive affect with peers at ages 10–11 to loneliness at ages 10–11. This sequential mediation was significant only under low but not high levels of family positive expressiveness. Findings support the importance of socializing positive emotion in the context of temperamental shyness and have implications for family-based intervention strategies aimed at children exhibiting high temperamental shyness.

Psychotic Arousal and the Psychopathology of Acute Schizophrenia: An Exploratory Study of the Experiential Emotional State in Acute Psychosis.

Background: Increasing research data suggest that the dysfunction of emotional brain systems may be an important contributor to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, contemporary psychopathology consistently underestimates the role of emotions in the phenomenology of the disease. Psychotic arousal (PA) is a conceptually defined psychopathological construct aiming to portray the experiential emotional state of acute psychosis. The concept provides an explanatory model for the emergence of psychosis, and the formation and maintenance of delusions based on neurobiological models on the formation of core consciousness and subjectivity. This is the first exploratory study of the major assumptions, endorsed in the project summarized as follows: (1) psychotic arousal is a discrete state, eligible for investigation; (2) abnormal experiential feelings are an integral part of this state; and (3) the state is responsive to antipsychotic intervention during the first weeks of treatment. Methods: We developed the Psychotic Arousal Scale (PAS) accordingly, explored its first psychometric properties and tested its relation to other psychopathological measures. Fifty-five acute schizophrenia patients were evaluated with the PAS, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale, the Hamilton Anxiety Scale, and the Calgary Depression Scale. Cronbach α coefficients, t-test analysis, correlations and mixed linear regression models were applied for testing the internal reliability of the scale, associations between parameters and sensitivity to change in three time periods during therapeutic intervention. Results: The results of the study support that (PA) is eligible for investigation as a discrete psychopathological state. Abnormal experiential feelings are an integral part of this state, presenting high affinity with other affective measures; their degree of severity relates to the delusions' conviction and are amenable to antipsychotics early in treatment during the acute psychotic episode. Conclusions: The findings of this exploratory study are connotative of the presence of an emotional arousal permeated by abnormal experiential feelings during acute psychosis, largely overlooked by contemporary psychopathology.

Exploring the interplay between enjoyment, anxiety, ideal self, and willingness to communicate in EMI higher education

AbstractLearning academic disciplinary knowledge through English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in higher education can be emotionally taxing. However, compared to the bulk of studies investigating the role of emotions in language learning, research that explores students’ emotional experiences in EMI contexts remains scarce. Drawing on a sample of 746 undergraduate students at an EMI university in China, the present study disentangles how two heavily researched emotions (i.e., enjoyment and anxiety) affect students’ learning motivation and willingness to communicate (WTC) inside and outside of EMI classrooms. Students’ motivation is conceptualized through the notion of ideal self to represent their aspired future self‐image as competent language users (ideal L2 self) and subject experts in the field (ideal disciplinary self). Results from structural equation modeling analyses highlighted enjoyment as a strong positive predictor for both ideal selves and WTC. In contrast, anxiety failed to predict neither ideal L2 self nor ideal disciplinary self but had a negative effect on WTC. The two types of ideal selves were found to differ in their respective impact on students’ WTC inside of EMI classrooms yet neither predicted WTC outside of classrooms. Pedagogical implications for EMI teaching and learning are provided.

Pengaruh Emosi Positif Terhadap Hasil Pengobatan Penyakit Rheumatoid Arthritis

This study evaluates the impact of positive emotions on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment outcomes through a meta-analysis of 47 studies (2015-2024) involving 12,384 patients. The primary findings reveal a significant positive correlation between positive emotions and improved RA treatment outcomes (r = 0.42, p &lt; 0.001), with the strongest effects observed in enhanced quality of life (r = 0.51) and physical function (r = 0.45). Patients exhibiting high positive emotions demonstrated greater reductions in pain (d = 0.38), decreased inflammation (d = 0.29), and improved physical function (d = 0.45) compared to control groups. Moreover, moderator analyses uncovered stronger effects among elderly patients (? = 0.012, p = 0.025) and those with longer RA duration (? = 0.018, p = 0.009). Finally, mediational analyses indicated that positive emotions contributed to improved treatment adherence (indirect effect = 0.09, 95% CI [0.05, 0.13]) and increased physical activity (indirect effect = 0.07, 95% CI [0.03, 0.11]) in RA patients. These findings extend Fredrickson's (2001) Broaden-and-Build theory and support Keefe et al.'s (2002) biopsychosocial model. Compared to meta-analyses by Brosseau et al. (2018) and Zhou et al. (2020), this study provides more comprehensive evidence on the role of positive emotions in various RA treatment outcomes. The novelty of this research lies in the analysis of previously unexplored mediating and moderating mechanisms, as well as a comparison of effectiveness with pharmacological interventions (SMD = 0.18, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.41], p = 0.124). These results support the integration of positive emotion-based interventions in RA management and expand upon Strand et al.'s (2019) findings on patient expectations in RA treatment.

Clinical effect of psychological nursing and nutritional intervention in radiopharmaceutical therapy of patients with thyroid carcinoma.

To investigate the clinical value of psychological nursing and nutritional intervention in radiopharmaceutical therapy of patients with thyroid carcinoma. This was retrospective study. One hundred and twenty patients with thyroid carcinoma were included at Baoding No.1 Central Hospital from May 10, 2021 to July 10, 2023 to as subjects and randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group (n=60 each group). Patients in the control group were given conventional nursing, while those in the experimental group received psychological nursing and nutritional intervention. The differences in quality of life, compliance, satisfaction and cognitive level between the two groups before and after intervention were compared. After intervention, the scores of emotional functions, role function, cognitive function, physical function and social function of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group, with statistically significant differences (P= 0.00); The compliance of the experimental group was 100%, which was significantly higher than 90% of the control group, with a statistically significant difference (P= 0.01). Moreover, the scores of SAS and SDS in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group after intervention, with a statistically significant difference (P= 0.00). Psychological nursing and nutritional intervention may result in a variety of benefits for patients with thyroid carcinoma receiving radiopharmaceutical therapy, such as effectively ameliorating the quality of life of patients, improving the cognitive level of patients with the disease and treatment compliance, reducing anxiety and depression, and enhancing patient satisfaction with nursing.

“You’ve Got Me Feeling Emotions”: Affective Norms of Deliberation in the Philippine lgbtqia+ Rights Movement

Abstract In contentious politics and deliberation, emotions function as rhetorical resources to substantiate claims and as evaluative criteria to assess social ties among actors. For social movements, then, emotions are vital in framing demands and sustaining collective participation. Grounded on accounts gathered from Filipinx lgbtqia+ rights movement through oral history interviews and analyzed through narrative and thematic approaches, this article illustrates the role of emotions when adherents deliberate with various interlocutors. I argue that advocates utilize affective ties to expand access to deliberative institutions and to sustain discussions of their claims. I also submit that specific ideologies motivate the idealization of particular affective norms when activists engage specific interlocutors. Hence, emotions figure in the movement both as framing tools and deliberative norms that need to be deliberated as well.

Exploring EFL teachers’ emotional experiences and adaptive expertise in the context of AI advancements: A positive psychology perspective

The rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are reshaping language education, raising concerns about the professional future of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. While existing literature often highlights the effectiveness of AI tools, it tends to overlook their impact on teachers' relevant expertise development and emotional experiences. This longitudinal study addresses this gap by exploring EFL teachers' emotional landscapes and adaptive expertise development through the lens of positive psychology. Employing thematic analysis, the study draws on data from three rounds of semi-structured interviews with ten EFL teachers, complemented by students' post-class reflections and classroom observations. The findings highlight the pivotal role of positive emotions in EFL teachers' professional development, revealing a dynamic, non-linear interaction between positive and negative emotions as teachers navigate AI-integrated language education. This emotional interplay is significantly influenced by teachers' social connections and professional backgrounds. The study underscores the need for institutional support systems that promote positive emotions and enhance teachers' digital literacy. By deepening our understanding of EFL teachers’ emotional experiences and professional growth within the AI-integrated educational context, this study offers valuable insights for designing targeted interventions and curriculum reforms that foster effective collaboration between human and AI intelligence in global education.

A longitudinal study on the relation between parenting and Toddler's disruptive behavior: what is the role of Toddler's negative emotionality and physiological stress reactivity?

Harsh and unsupportive parenting is a risk factor for the development of disruptive behavior in children. However, little is known about how children's temperament and stress reactivity influence this relation. In a three-wave longitudinal study, we examined whether the associations between parenting practices (supportive parenting, positive discipline, and harsh discipline) and child disruptive behavior were mediated by child temperament (negative emotionality) and stress reactivity (heart rate reactivity). In 72 families (Mage child = 14.6 months), living in the Netherlands, parents reported on their parenting practices and their children's disruptive behavior and negative emotionality. Children's heart rate reactivity was assessed through a series of stress-inducing tasks. Results from regression-based mediation analyses with bootstrapping showed that negative emotionality and stress reactivity did not mediate the relation between parenting and disruptive behavior. The results overall demonstrate that in a group of children this age, a reinforcing dynamic between parenting, child stress and disruptive behavior is not yet firmly established.

Dewey’s Peircean aesthetics: An exegesis and its upshot for sociology

Pragmatist-informed work in sociological theory ritualistically references John Dewey (1859–1952), among others, as a foundational pragmatist theorist. Yet sociological theorists have barely scratched the surface of what philosophers who specialize in Dewey’s work such as Thomas Alexander and Richard Shusterman see as central to his thought, namely, his aesthetics. While in recent years some have drawn attention to Dewey’s aesthetics, this area of his work remains little known within sociology. Even less known is the extent to which Dewey’s aesthetics bears significant resemblances to the thought of Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914). I offer an exegesis of Dewey’s aesthetics, underscoring the roles of quality, emotion, and continuity in it and in Peircean thought alike. Understanding Dewey’s aesthetics in a Peircean key, I argue, calls for shifting theoretical attention from how people “problem solve” to get what they want or engage in “creative action” to transcend their situational constraints, to when, why, and how people, including sociologists ourselves, might engage problematic situations as mediums for transformation, as aesthetic experiences in potential. Further, it brings into focus the importance of potentiality for sociological research.

Online Social Influence and Negative Emotions toward Snow Sports Brands: Moderation and Mediation Effects

This article draws on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model to understand the role of negative emotions in the anti-brand behaviors of online users who consume snow sports brands. To this end, both the online social influence and the mediating effect of symbolic incongruence (stimulus) on the generation of negative emotions (anger, stress, frustration, fear, boredom and sadness) (organism), and how these influence the formation of negative customer brand engagement (nCBE) (response), are analyzed. The study also analyses the moderating effects of “level of expertise”, this makes it possible to capture differences in behaviors based on the profile of the users in each of the proposed relationships. Questionnaire responses of 400 ski and snowboard users over 18 years of age were analyzed using a quantitative methodology. The results obtained have important theoretical and practical implications, since they confirm that online social influences have both a direct and indirect (mediating) effect on negative emotions, which positively affects the nCBE of online users of snow sports brands. Significant differences in behavior based on experience level (moderation effect) were also found. The study proposes useful practical recommendations applicable in online environments that the extreme sports industry could use to neutralize/avoid highly detrimental consequences.

HERO in action (crisis): the role of psychological capital in experiencing an action crisis

In some situations, goal striving does not go without problems, leading to intrapsychic decisional conflict between giving up and persisting in problematic goal striving, known as an action crisis. However, only limited attention has been devoted to cultivable positive psychological resources that can shield individuals from an action crisis development. In the six studies, we examined the role of psychological capital (PsyCap), the higher-order construct based on similarities between hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism and their unique characteristics in an action crisis experience. A pilot study (N = 295) established a link between variables, indicating that the more PsyCap participants had, the fewer action crises they experienced (and vice versa). In a preregistered follow-up study (N = 210), this finding was replicated. Furthermore, it was shown that the relationship was indirect, potentially mediated by the appraisals of goal attainment. In the third study (N = 411), some essential aspects were varied. The main findings were conceptually replicated, showing that PsyCap was associated with action crisis and predicted it above and beyond selected personality traits (negative emotionality and conscientiousness). In the fourth and fifth study (N = 272 and N = 268), the indirect role of goal-related negative emotions, controlled motivation, and effort was supported. Also, results were partially extended to goal progress. However, in a longitudinal study (N = 254) with the random intercept cross-lagged panel model, it was shown that although the average level of PsyCap across time points is negatively associated with the average level of action crisis (i.e., the between-person effect was supported), the cross-lagged within-subject effect of PsyCap on action crisis was not supported.

Examining Discussions Related to Transgender Athletes on Twitter: The Role of Negative Emotion on Message Engagement

Several states have enacted laws prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in sports that align with their gender identity. The present study seeks to explore the role of negative emotions and their relation to the rise of online discussions surrounding transgender athletes. We examined whether posts expressing anger and fear impacted message engagement through capturing all related posts ( N = 658,207) from September 2017 to September 2022. To determine the stance of tweets that expressed negative emotion, we then conducted a quantitative content analysis of posts expressing anger and fear. Overall, we find that posts expressing anger were associated with increased message engagement, while fear was associated with decreased engagement. Our content analysis revealed that tweets expressing either negative emotion were both in support and in opposition of issues related to transgender athletes. While it may appear that users hold a predominantly negative view towards the topic of transgender athletes due to expressed anger and fear, our study reveals they may in fact have a more diverse range of perspectives on these related issues. Practical implications are discussed.

Catalyzing Success: How Enthusiastic Leaders Drive Performance through Group Satisfaction and Positive Emotions

Effective leaders employ a blend of transformational and transactional leadership styles to collaborate with their employees, working towards achieving organizational objectives. While the significance of enthusiasm in leadership is acknowledged, its specific role remains largely unexplored within the realm of leadership studies. We contend that enthusiasm assumes a pivotal and influential role in successful leadership, ultimately enhancing overall productivity. This study is dedicated to investigating how leader enthusiasm impacts perceived performance among team members and examine the mediation of group satisfaction and positive emotions in the relationship between leader enthusiasm and perceived performance. By analyzing data collected from a participant pool of 311 individuals, our research yields compelling evidence that leader enthusiasm exerts a positive influence on perceived performance. A noteworthy revelation emerging from our research is found in the mediation analysis. This analysis sheds light on the pivotal roles of group satisfaction and positive emotions as key mediators in the link between leader enthusiasm and perceived performance. This underscores the concept that leader enthusiasm indirectly shapes how employees perceive their own performance, primarily through its profound impact on group satisfaction and the positive emotions experienced by individual team members. In summary, our study underscores the vital and transformative role of leader enthusiasm in cultivating a rewarding and fulfilling work environment. This, in turn, exerts a positive influence on follower emotions and their perceptions of performance. Our findings shed light on the intricate mechanisms through which leader enthusiasm contributes to shaping employees’ perceptions of their performance.

Associations between 6-minute walk distance and physiologic measures and clinical outcomes in myositis-associated interstitial lung disease.

The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a simple test widely used to assess sub-maximal exercise capacity in chronic respiratory diseases. We explored the relationship of 6-min walk distance (6MWD) with measurements of physiological, clinical, radiographic measures in patients with myositis-associated interstitial lung disease (MA-ILD). We analyzed data from the Abatacept in Myositis Associated Interstitial lung disease (Attack My-ILD) study, a 48-week multicentre randomized trial of patients with anti-synthetase antibodies and active MA-ILD. 6MWD, forced vital capacity (FVC), diffusing capacity (DLCO), high resolution CT, and various physician/patient reported outcome measures were obtained during the trial. Spearman's correlations and repeated-measures analysis with linear mixed-effects models were used to estimate the associations between 6MWD and various physiologic, clinical and radiographic parameters both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Twenty participants with a median age of 57, 55% male and 85% white were analyzed. Baseline 6MWD did not associate with baseline PFTs. Repeated-measures analysis showed 6MWD over time associated with FVC over time, but not with DLCO. 6MWD over time also correlated with UCSD dyspnea score, Borg scores, as well as global disease activity and muscle strength over time. Emotional role functioning, vitality, general health and physical functioning scores by short form 36 also correlated with 6MWD over time. : Exploratory work in a small cohort of MA-ILD demonstrated 6MWD over time associated with parallel changes in FVC and patient reported outcomes of dyspnea, but not with DLCO. Larger studies are needed to validate the reliability, responsiveness and utility of the 6MWT in MA-ILD. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03215927.

Refugee Women’s Intersecting Social Locations: A Contemporary Perspective on the Process of Becoming a Refugee Woman

This article explores the convergence of narrative criminology and refugee women’s experiences, framing the intricate process of becoming a refugee woman as “Refugee women’s intersecting social locations”. Building on previous research addressing violence (Borges, in J Int Migr Integr 25:673–693. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-023-01102-z, 2023) and agency (Borges, in Comp Migr Stud, 2024), this study incorporates insights from 24 interviews with Middle Eastern and African refugee women living in Portugal, their host country. It challenges the dichotomy of violence and agency, emphasizing their interconnected nature in shaping a better life. Aligned with (Pemberton & Aarten, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 41:541–556, 2018) narrative constructs, the discussion underscores the centrality of narrative to identity, its role in emotions, and its importance in connecting individual lives to broader cultural contexts. This narrative-centric approach contributes valuable insights to migration studies, informing gender-based policies and practices for enhanced support and offering a model for future research in the field.

Morpho-physiological Diversity of Cholecystokinin-expressing Interneurons in the Dentate Gyrus.

The hippocampus plays a crucial role in learning, memory, and emotion, with the dentate gyrus (DG) serving as the primary gateway. The DG receives multimodal sensory inputs from outside the hippocampus and relays this integrated information to downstream regions for further processing. Within the DG, inhibitory GABAergic interneurons (INs) regulate information processing, thereby influencing the overall hippocampal function. Cholecystokinin (CCK)-expressing INs in the DG are particularly implicated in emotional behavior due to their expression of cannabinoid and serotonin receptors. However, studying the morpho-electrophysiological features and functions of these INs has been challenging due to the off-target labeling of granule cells (GCs), the primary excitatory neurons in the DG, when using the CCK recombinase driver line. To address this issue, we employed an intersectional strategy to selectively label CCK INs, allowing us to investigate their electrophysiological, morphological, and synaptic features, which were further confirmed by post hoc pro-CCK immunostaining. Our analysis identified nine distinct subtypes of CCK INs, each with unique projection patterns targeting specific domains along the axo-somato-dendritic axis of GCs. CCK INs also exhibited diverse passive intrinsic properties and firing patterns. In addition, we found that CCK INs generate action potentials before GCs in response to cortical input, suggesting that they play a role in modulating GC input-output transformation. In summary, our findings indicate that DG CCK INs are diverse subpopulations with distinct roles in network functions.

Climate emotions, parenting plans, and racial difference in the United States

IntroductionIncreasing attention is being paid to the relationship between climate change, emotional and mental distress, and feelings about raising children. These studies often overlook the role of demographics, race in particular, despite evidence that racial minority groups in the U.S. experience more detrimental climate impacts and express more climate concern than do white communities. This survey was conducted to elucidate the relationship between race, climate emotions, and parenting plans in the U.S. MethodsWe surveyed 2489 people in the U.S. between the ages of 22 and 35 in September 2021. Because we were interested in the role of race, we oversampled those who identified as non-white/people of color. The survey assessed participants’ emotions with respect to climate change, and their emotions with respect to birthing and raising children (parenting) in the context of climate change. ResultsNonwhite respondents were more likely than white respondents to report feeling traumatized as a response to climate change, and to plan to have fewer future children than they wanted as a result of their climate-related emotions. They were also more likely to report feeling more optimistic and hopeful in response to climate change and in response to raising existing children in the context of climate change. White women were least likely to report any positive emotions with respect to parenting during climate change. White men were most likely to report non-feeling emotions such as numbness, indifference, or being checked out. Christian respondents were more likely to report feeling positive emotions overall. ConclusionThis study highlights race as a statistically significant factor in the reporting of climate emotions and parenting plans. It demonstrates that climate change has contradictory impacts on the emotions of nonwhite people of color, while having a negative impact on childbearing plans. We call for further research into the role of race in climate-related emotions and parenting plans, particularly with respect to the impacts of traumatized feelings, as well as the roles of religion and positive emotions.