Spotlight Research 9 - Emotional and Psychological Impact of Climate Change in US Youth: Evidence and Implications for Practice and Policy

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a risk to mental health, and in particular youth mental health, through direct and indirect exposures to severe weather events and environmental changes, as well as through vicarious and anticipatory experiences. There remains little data on these impacts in US youth. This research spotlight will review current evidence and knowledge gaps and present new data from the panelists’ recently completed research - largest ever survey on the emotional and psychological impacts of climate change. This online survey, which drew a non-probability sample of 15,793 US youth aged 16-25 representing all 50 states, included the following domains: emotions and beliefs and mental health indicators related to the impact of climate change; relational aspects of distress related to climate change; perceptions of responsibility for causing and responding to climate change and related distress; planned responses to climate change and actions desired from relevant stakeholders. State-level samples were weighted according to the census for age, sex, race and ethnicity and were aggregated to create a national sample reflecting the demographic composition of the US. Findings will be reviewed for the full sample and for subgroups, including those who reported being affected by severe weather events, those who identified with different political parties, and according to other geographical variations. The session will discuss implications of these new findings, and of existing evidence, for the mental health community including practice, research, community engagement and advocacy. It will also review policy implications for mental health, climate education and resilience, and climate legislation more generally. The aim of the session is to give a comprehensive introduction, centered on important new research, to climate change and youth mental health, and the role the mental health professionals, and specifically members of the ABCT community may play in meeting the challenge.