Three Ways to Help Children Channel Climate Change Anxiety Into Positive Action

Maria Ojala, associate professor in psychology at Örebro University, Sweden, has been examining how young people think, feel, cope, learn, and communicate about climate change. She has explored how climate change anxiety can lead to engagement in some cases and avoidance in others. Ojala has developed a set of recommendations for how teachers and parents can help children channel their worry into meaningful action.

The nature of climate anxiety

Climate change worries people, youth included, in different ways. It threatens people and places we love. It threatens people far away and future generations, as well as nature and animals. For some it is already destroying their livelihoods, cultures, and well-being. Actually experiencing extreme weather events increases individuals’ commitment to taking action, as in the response of Indigenous people to drought (Australia), Inuit people to the loss of sea ice, Indian farmers to temperatures that destroy their crops, and Inupiat communities to flooding (NW Alaska).

How do children respond? Before adolescence, they may not have the capacity to comprehend the complexity and enormity of the problems. Ojala’s research finds that younger children are less prone to pessimism than older youth, who have greater capacity to comprehend the gravity of the situation.

The link between climate change worry and psychological well-being is not straightforward. Climate change anxiety can be associated with environment-friendly behaviors, as found in studies in Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the United States. It does not reliably predict poor mental well-being. Children with higher self-efficacy, or who have less to worry about on a day-to-day basis, may be more likely to have enough energy to worry about climate change and have adequate resources to engage positively.

Parents and teachers have a vital role in shaping how children react to climate change anxiety.

How children deal with climate anxiety

In her research, which is based on questionnaire responses by children, youth, and young adults, Ojala has articulated three coping strategies.

Problem focused. Children and young people seek information about what to do and take individual action, such as cycling to school, eating less meat, and saving energy. The danger in this response is that the burden of individual responsibility can harm children’s well-being. Some children undertake actions together as a group, providing a sense of solidarity. Older children are more likely than younger children to make a problem-focused response, perhaps because they are more mature and have more individual agency.

Emotion focused. Children and young people seek to manage their emotions in response to the anxiety. A small proportion of children simply deny climate change. Others just avoid the information and distract themselves with other things. Yet others seek social support, discussing the issue with people around them. A few older youth ruminate darkly, vent anger, and fall into fatalism.

“Ojala presents three recommendations about what teachers and parents can do to support children to respond positively to climate change.”

Meaning focused. Children and young people seek out positive aspects of the situation, for example, the overall increase in global awareness and action or the probability of solutions being found eventually. They have trust – in the science, in technology, in what others are doing, in environmental organizations, and in politicians. A leading global youth campaign, Fridays for the Future, is founded on trust in science.

How teachers and parents can support children to engage with climate change

Ojala presents three recommendations about what teachers and parents can do to support children to respond positively to climate change. She argues that more evaluation of particular approaches is needed, but in the meantime, she builds on youth’s responses to her questionnaires.

1. Support a problem-focused response. Teachers should show concrete examples of pro-environmental behavior. Offering specific examples, rather than getting children to search for and plan actions, helps avoid the risk of children feeling the burden of individual responsibility. Teachers can encourage children to come together to build a sense of togetherness around action.
2. Support an emotion-focused response. Teachers and parents should take seriously children’s fears and emotions about climate change, acknowledging, validating, and encouraging discussion about them. Ojala recommends promoting “critical emotional awareness.” For example, children could be invited to consider what emotions are “allowed,” whose emotions are taken seriously, how boys and girls might react differently, why different children react differently, or the difference between individual and collective responses.
3. Support a meaning-focused response. Teachers can promote hope and trust by inviting climate actors from different generations into schools to share their contributions to tackling climate change. Teachers and parents can turn the discussion to one about values, such as caring for people who are suffering and for animals. These adults can introduce children and youth to opportunities to act collectively with other young people, for example, by taking part in youth climate campaigns.

As teachers and parents themselves become more aware of the climate crisis – driven largely by the campaigns of young people – the challenge of raising children in the shadow of such a threat becomes more and more acute. Ojala provides a useful set of actions that parents and teachers can take, based on what children and young people themselves say about what works.

The Climate Psychology Alliance lists resources and networks for young people, resources for parents, teachers and carers, and courses on climate psychology.