A longitudinal study carried out by Academy Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro, Doctoral Researcher Salla Veijonaho and a research group involved over three thousand Helsinki-based adolescents between the ages of 11 and 15.
The TeensGoGreen project is part of the new EDUCA – Education for the Future Flagship launched in January 2024.
Four different climate distress and climate change denial profiles
The study identified four different profiles of climate distress and climate change denial. While earlier studies conducted in Finland have been cross-sectional, the current study is longitudinal with a large dataset.
Half of the adolescents were carefree about climate change; they neither experienced much climate distress nor denied the existence of climate change. This group also experienced the highest overall wellbeing among the profiles.
What is most interesting about the profile is that even though adolescents’ climate distress is often emphasised in the media, many adolescents participating in this study did not experience climate distress at all.
“You could also see this as a good thing, since curbing climate change requires above all social action originating in adults, and individual adolescents should not carry the weight of climate change on their shoulders,” says Salla Veijonaho. “On the other hand, it is also natural for adolescents to experience climate distress when contemplating an uncertain future in the midst of climate change.”
One in five adolescents (about 20% of respondents) were climate change deniers and consequently did not experience climate distress.
In contrast, one in five adolescents were emotionally involved with climate change. This group exhibited elevated values particularly in the emotional dimensions of climate distress, which were related to concentration difficulties, worry, and feelings of inadequacy and guilt due to climate change. Furthermore, this group acted more environmentally responsibly than other groups.
“When the profiles identified were compared in terms of general wellbeing, such as satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms and with regard to environmentally responsible actions, which include recycling and energy saving, this group differed from the others in that they engaged in environmentally responsible actions more than others,” says Veijonaho.
The study also found a fourth profile in which one-tenth of the adolescents (about 10% of respondents) were overburdened by climate change. This group simultaneously displayed intense exhaustion with regard to climate change and denial about its existence. They also experienced lower overall wellbeing.
“They further differed from the other profile of high climate distress in that they experienced functional effects caused by climate distress. In other words, they had concerns about climate change having a negative effect on their relationships, schooling and enjoying their free time. In the emotionally involved profile, functional forms of climate distress were low,” says Veijonaho.
Climate distress is not a permanent condition; it evolves and changes
A longitudinal examination of the profiles shows that climate distress is not usually a permanent condition but continuously evolves and changes. Adolescents can simultaneously suffer from strong climate distress and deny the existence of climate change. The experience of climate distress is also constantly in flux.
“Young people belonging to low climate distress profiles in the first year of the study could move on to high climate distress profiles in the second year, and vice versa,” says Katariina Salmela-Aro.
The TeenGoGreen project is the first time climate distress profiles and their changes were studied, and the research should continue.
Changes in the degree of climate distress experienced may be related to regulation methods adolescents use to handle and channel their personal climate distress.
Effective and constructive regulation methods can help to avoid actively experiencing climate distress, while less constructive methods may increase distress and lead to emotional paralysis.
“There is a silver lining to experiencing climate distress: it may serve as a motivating resource and encourage climate-responsible actions in one’s personal life,” says Salmela-Aro.
Salmela-Aro wants to emphasise that adolescents are children (the target group of this study were between the ages of 11 and 15) and that children too experience climate distress. The study shows that children experience changes in their climate distress profiles and that they can be influenced.
“Early adolescence is the time when we begin to build our own identities and worldviews, making this stage particularly important if we want to provide adolescents with skills to steer them through climate change,” says Veijonaho.
The research article Profiles of climate change distress and climate denialism during adolescence: A two-cohort longitudinal study was published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Behavioral Development.
Authors:
Salla Veijonaho, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki
Maria Ojala, School of Law, Psychology and Social Work, Örebro University
Lauri Hietajärvi, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki
Katariina Salmela-Aro, Academy Professor, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki