2 - (SYM 70) The Influence of Climate Change Education on Climate Change Anxiety, Hope, Action, and Justice Perspectives

Background: With the majority of young people worldwide reporting worry and distress about climate change (Hickman et al., 2021), school-based climate education provides an opportunity to support youth in how they understand and respond to climate change. However, little is known about the impact of climate change education on students. The current study examined changes in student outcomes, including climate change anxiety, hope, action, and justice perspectives, before and after being exposed to a unit on climate change in high school.

Method: Participants included 93 high school students enrolled in science classes in a Northeast liberal school district. Approximately 52.7% identified as women, 50.5% Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color, and 20.4% of students qualified for free/reduced lunch. Surveys were administered at the start and end of a unit on climate change. Measures included Climate Change Anxiety (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020), Climate Change Hope (Li & Munroe, 2018), Environmental Action (Alisat & Reimer, 2015), and Climate Racial Justice perspectives (Musicaro et al., 2024). Post-surveys also assessed students’ perceptions of how the class influenced climate-related feelings and actions. Paired t-tests assessed changes in student scale scores before and after the climate change unit.

Results: Significant increases in engagement in collective climate action (M_diff  = -0.16, p = .010), but not individual action were observed. No significant changes in climate anxiety, climate hope, or climate justice perspectives were detected. These results were mostly consistent with students’ self-assessment of the influence of the class.

Discussion: This study provides an initial step towards understanding the impact of climate change education on students. Future research should explore best practices in teaching climate education with the goal of not only providing students with scientific knowledge of climate change, but also to help them recognize intersections between climate and racial justice, to provide support in exploring emotional responses to climate change, and to equip them with strategies to cope with those responses, including engaging in action.