The psychological impact of climate change
From bushfires to floods, Australians are no strangers to extreme weather events that are becoming increasingly common as a result of climate change. As such, 86% of Australians express some level of concern about climate change. Similarly, 79% of Victorians are concerned about the negative impacts of climate change, not just on us but also on future generations.
For people most affected by climate change and extreme weather events, the resulting distress can impair their ability to perform daily tasks. This can result in climate change anxiety.
What is climate change anxiety?
Climate change anxiety is a negative affective state related to anticipation about the threat posed by changes to the climate.
It is important to note that climate change anxiety is not always a clinical diagnosis. Anxiety itself can be beneficial since it alerts us to potential dangers. In fact, a lack of anxiety is sometimes even harmful.
As such, climate change anxiety may constitute an anxiety disorder to the extent that it is excessive, persistent, or out of proportion, as judged by a clinician and taking contextual factors into account.
Interventions have largely focused on alleviating climate change anxiety within individuals.
However, a number of researchers posit that some level of climate change anxiety is necessary for individuals to take action to address environmental challenges.
There is tension between reducing anxiety on an individual level and promoting pro-social and environmental actions. It is therefore important to consider all potential outcomes of an intervention.
Individual outcomes
Climate change anxiety is an unpleasant emotional state, which individuals want to reduce. It can also be pathological to the extent that it interferes with functioning.
Interventions that address climate anxiety may therefore target the individual outcomes of reducing anxiety, particularly if this anxiety reaches clinical levels.
Social outcomes
Climate change anxiety interventions may also involve collective action. For example, interventions such as joining activist or community groups, or faith-based practices, are likely to give people a sense of common purpose.
To that end, climate change anxiety interventions may address the social outcomes of increasing cohesion within groups and help them achieve their goals.
Environmental outcomes
By promoting a connection with nature, or with environmental activist causes, climate change anxiety interventions can increase pro-environmental behaviours in individuals.
These behaviours have downstream positive implications on climate change and environmental issues more broadly.
A visual guide to evaluating intervention outcomes
There are a lot of interventions out there that address climate change anxiety. For each intervention we identify whether it is likely to have a beneficial, detrimental, or neutral impact on individual, social, and environmental outcomes, based on existing empirical evidence.
Below, we use a colour-coding system to provide a quick visual guide for the intervention impact on a particular group of outcomes. Click on the group of outcomes that you are interested in to see the interventions and their impact on those outcomes. You can also click on individual interventions to access practical resources on how to engage in them, as well as empirical evidence that underlies our evaluation.
Colour codes:
| Direct evidence of beneficial outcome | |
| Indirect evidence of beneficial outcome | |
| Direct evidence of detrimental outcome | |
| Direct evidence of mixed outcome | |
| No evidence |
On this page
Adaptation
Practical resources
What does adaptation to climate change mean?
Understanding and promoting psychological adaptation to change
References
Bradley, G. L., & Reser, J. P. (2017). Adaptation processes in the context of climate change: A social and environmental psychology perspective. Journal of Bioeconomics, 19(1), 29–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10818-016-9231-x
Doherty, T. J., & Clayton, S. (2011). The psychological impacts of global climate change. American Psychologist, 66(4), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023141
Sanson, A. V., Hoorn, J. V., & Burke, S. E. L. (2019). Responding to the Impacts of the Climate Crisis on Children and Youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 201–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12342
Verlie, B., Clark, E., Jarrett, T., & Supriyono, E. (2021). Educators’ experiences and strategies for responding to ecological distress. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 37(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2020.34
Counselling
Practical resources
Psychology for a Safe Climate's directory of Climate Aware Practitioners
References
Fritze, J. G., Blashki, G. A., Burke, S., & Wiseman, J. (2008). Hope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and well-being. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 2(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-2-13
Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: Risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6
Creative pursuits
Practical resources
Climarte: a collaborative platform for artists to engage in climate-focussed exhibitions and events
References
Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: Risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6
Kipp, A., Cunsolo, A., Vodden, K., King, N., Manners, S., & Harper, S. L. (2019). At-a-glance Climate change impacts on health and well-being in rural and remote regions across Canada: A synthesis of the literature. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada : Research, Policy and Practice, 39(4), 122–126.
Pihkala, P. (2018). Eco-Anxiety, Tragedy, and Hope: Psychological and Spiritual Dimensions of Climate Change. Zygon®, 53(2), 545–569. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12407
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-anxiety and environmental education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Sanson, A. V., Hoorn, J. V., & Burke, S. E. L. (2019). Responding to the Impacts of the Climate Crisis on Children and Youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 201–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12342
Education
Practical resources
6 tips for talking to kids about climate change
Parental guide to climate change: how to educate and encourage pro-environmental behaviours in kids
References
Bradley, G. L., & Reser, J. P. (2017). Adaptation processes in the context of climate change: A
social and environmental psychology perspective. Journal of Bioeconomics, 19(1),
29–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10818-016-9231-x
Palinkas, L. A., & Wong, M. (2020). Global climate change and mental health. Current Opinion
in Psychology, 32, 12–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.06.023
Palinkas, L. A., O’Donnell, M. L., Lau, W., & Wong, M. (2020). Strategies for Delivering Mental Health Services in Response to Global Climate Change: A Narrative Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22), 8562. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228562
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-anxiety and environmental education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Stevenson, K., & Peterson, N. (2016). Motivating action through fostering climate change hope
and concern and avoiding despair among adolescents. Sustainability, 8(1), 6.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su8010006
Usher, K., Durkin, J., & Bhullar, N. (2019). Eco-anxiety: How thinking about climate change-related environmental decline is affecting our mental health. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 28(6), 1233–1234. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12673
Emotions
Practical resources
How to regulate your emotions when you feel you can’t manage your environment.
How to support and validate others' emotions.
Understanding and validating young people's climate change anxiety.
References
Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., Minor, K., Hayes, K., Williams, K. G., & Howard, C. (2020). Ecological grief and anxiety: The start of a healthy response to climate change? The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(7), e261–e263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3
Doherty, T. J., & Clayton, S. (2011). The psychological impacts of global climate change. American Psychologist, 66(4), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023141
Fraser, J., Pantesco, V., Plemons, K., Gupta, R., & Rank, S. J. (2013). Sustaining the Conservationist. Ecopsychology, 5(2), 70–79. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2012.0076
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Pinsky, E., Guerrero, A. P. S., & Livingston, R. (2020). Our House Is on Fire: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in the Era of the Climate Crisis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(5), 580–582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.01.016
Ojala, M. (2012). Regulating Worry, Promoting Hope: How Do Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults Cope with Climate Change? International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 7(4), 537–561.
Verlie, B., Clark, E., Jarrett, T., & Supriyono, E. (2021). Educators’ experiences and strategies for responding to ecological distress. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 37(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2020.34
Interpersonal skills
Practical resources
Parental guide to climate change: how to help kids build interpersonal skills and relationships
References
Sanson, A. V., Hoorn, J. V., & Burke, S. E. L. (2019). Responding to the Impacts of the Climate Crisis on Children and Youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 201–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12342
Medication
References
Wolf, J., & Salo, R. (2008). Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink: Climate change delusion. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 42(4), 350. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048670701881603
Nature
Practical resources
Parental guide to climate change: how to encourage children to care about nature
Promoting pro-environmental behaviours in children
References
Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., Minor, K., Hayes, K., Williams, K. G., & Howard, C. (2020). Ecological grief and anxiety: The start of a healthy response to climate change? The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(7), e261–e263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3
Fritze, J. G., Blashki, G. A., Burke, S., & Wiseman, J. (2008). Hope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and well-being. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 2(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-2-13
Harper, S. L., Edge, V. L., Ford, J., Willox, A. C., Wood, M., McEwen, S. A., IHACC Research
Team, & RICG. (2015). Climate-sensitive health priorities in Nunatsiavut, Canada. BMC
Public Health, 15(1), 605. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1874-3
Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: Risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6
Kipp, A., Cunsolo, A., Vodden, K., King, N., Manners, S., & Harper, S. L. (2019). At-a-glance Climate change impacts on health and well-being in rural and remote regions across Canada: A synthesis of the literature. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada : Research, Policy and Practice, 39(4), 122–126.
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Pinsky, E., Guerrero, A. P. S., & Livingston, R. (2020). Our House Is on Fire: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in the Era of the Climate Crisis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(5), 580–582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.01.016
Non-avoidant coping
Practical resources
Understanding different coping styles
Behavioural, relational, and cognitive strategies to cope with climate change anxiety
References
Mah, A. Y. J., Chapman, D. A., Markowitz, E. M., & Lickel, B. (2020). Coping with climate change: Three insights for research, intervention, and communication to promote adaptive coping to climate change. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 75, 102282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102282
Ojala, M. (2012a). How do children cope with global climate change? Coping strategies, engagement, and well-being. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32(3), 225–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.02.004
Ojala, M. (2012b). Regulating Worry, Promoting Hope: How Do Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults Cope with Climate Change? International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 7(4), 537–561.
Sanson, A. V., Hoorn, J. V., & Burke, S. E. L. (2019). Responding to the Impacts of the Climate Crisis on Children and Youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 201–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12342
Taylor, S. (2020). Anxiety disorders, climate change, and the challenges ahead: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 76, 102313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102313
Usher, K., Durkin, J., & Bhullar, N. (2019). Eco-anxiety: How thinking about climate change-related environmental decline is affecting our mental health. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 28(6), 1233–1234. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12673
Problem-focused action
Practical resources
Understanding factors that can promote collective action
Tips on motivating individuals and groups to adopt sustainable behaviours
References
Budziszewska, M., & Jonsson, S. E. (2021). From Climate Anxiety to Climate Action: An Existential Perspective on Climate Change Concerns Within Psychotherapy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 002216782199324. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167821993243
Clayton, S. (2021). Climate Change and Mental Health. Current Environmental Health Reports, 8(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-020-00303-3
Doherty, T. J., & Clayton, S. (2011). The psychological impacts of global climate change. American Psychologist, 66(4), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023141
Frydenberg, E. (2020). My journey in coping research and practice: The impetus and the relevance. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 37(1), 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1017/edp.2020.9
Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: Risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6
Hickman, C. (2020). We need to (find a way to) talk about … Eco-anxiety. Journal of Social Work Practice, 34(4), 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844166
Palinkas, L. A., O’Donnell, M. L., Lau, W., & Wong, M. (2020). Strategies for Delivering Mental Health Services in Response to Global Climate Change: A Narrative Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22), 8562. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228562
Parker, C. L., Wellbery, C., & Mueller, M. (2019). The changing climate: Managing health
impacts. American Family Physician, 100(10), 618–626.
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Pinsky, E., Guerrero, A. P. S., & Livingston, R. (2020). Our House Is on Fire: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in the Era of the Climate Crisis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(5), 580–582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.01.016
Ojala, M. (2013). Coping with Climate Change among Adolescents: Implications for Subjective Well-Being and Environmental Engagement. Sustainability, 5(5), 2191–2209. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5052191
Sanson, A. V., Hoorn, J. V., & Burke, S. E. L. (2019). Responding to the Impacts of the Climate Crisis on Children and Youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 201–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12342
Verlie, B., Clark, E., Jarrett, T., & Supriyono, E. (2021). Educators’ experiences and strategies for responding to ecological distress. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 37(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2020.34
Psychological therapy
Practical resources
Psychology for a Safe Climate's directory of Climate Aware Practitioners
References
Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., Minor, K., Hayes, K., Williams, K. G., & Howard, C. (2020). Ecological grief and anxiety: The start of a healthy response to climate change? The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(7), e261–e263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3
Fritze, J. G., Blashki, G. A., Burke, S., & Wiseman, J. (2008). Hope, despair and transformation: Climate change and the promotion of mental health and well-being. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 2(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-2-13
Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: Risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6
Jones, M. K., Wootton, B. M., Vaccaro, L. D., & Menzies, R. G. (2012). The impact of climate change on obsessive compulsive checking concerns. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 46(3), 265–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867411433951
Taylor, S. (2020). Anxiety disorders, climate change, and the challenges ahead: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 76, 102313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102313
Reassurance
Practical resources
Understanding and validating young people's climate change anxiety
How to support young people experiencing climate change anxiety
References
Pinsky, E., Guerrero, A. P. S., & Livingston, R. (2020). Our House Is on Fire: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in the Era of the Climate Crisis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(5), 580–582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.01.016
Verlie, B., Clark, E., Jarrett, T., & Supriyono, E. (2021). Educators’ experiences and strategies
for responding to ecological distress. Australian Journal of Environmental Education,
37(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2020.34
Religion/spirituality
Practical resources
3 tips on engaging religious groups in conversation about climate change
References
Gibson, K., Haslam, N., & Kaplan, I. (2019). Distressing encounters in the context of climate change: Idioms of distress, determinants, and responses to distress in Tuvalu. Transcultural Psychiatry, 56(4), 667–696. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461519847057
Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: Risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6
Resilience
Practical resources
Good Grief Network: A 10-step program to build resilience
Understanding climate grief to help build resilience
References
Fraser, J., Pantesco, V., Plemons, K., Gupta, R., & Rank, S. J. (2013). Sustaining the Conservationist. Ecopsychology, 5(2), 70–79. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2012.0076
Howard, M., Ahmed, S., Lachapelle, P., & Schure, M. B. (2020). Farmer and rancher perceptions
of climate change and their relationships with mental health. Journal of Rural Mental
Health, 44(2), 87–95. https://doi.org/10.1037/rmh0000131
Mah, A. Y. J., Chapman, D. A., Markowitz, E. M., & Lickel, B. (2020). Coping with climate change: Three insights for research, intervention, and communication to promote adaptive coping to climate change. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 75, 102282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102282
Pihkala, P. (2020). Anxiety and the ecological crisis: An analysis of eco-anxiety and climate
anxiety. Sustainability, 12(19), 7836. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197836
Role-modelling
Practical resources
Understanding and modelling behaviours to prevent anxiety in young people
References
Ojala, M. (2012). Regulating Worry, Promoting Hope: How Do Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults Cope with Climate Change? International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 7(4), 537–561.
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-anxiety and environmental education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Pinsky, E., Guerrero, A. P. S., & Livingston, R. (2020). Our House Is on Fire: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in the Era of the Climate Crisis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(5), 580–582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.01.016
Self-perception
Practical resources
How to improve your perception of your own abilities to address climate change
References
Doherty, T. J., & Clayton, S. (2011). The psychological impacts of global climate change. American Psychologist, 66(4), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023141
Frydenberg, E. (2020). My journey in coping research and practice: The impetus and the relevance. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 37(1), 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1017/edp.2020.9
Pinsky, E., Guerrero, A. P. S., & Livingston, R. (2020). Our House Is on Fire: Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists in the Era of the Climate Crisis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(5), 580–582. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.01.016
Usher, K., Durkin, J., & Bhullar, N. (2019). Eco-anxiety: How thinking about climate change-related environmental decline is affecting our mental health. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 28(6), 1233–1234. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12673
Verlie, B., Clark, E., Jarrett, T., & Supriyono, E. (2021). Educators’ experiences and strategies
for responding to ecological distress. Australian Journal of Environmental Education,
37(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2020.34
Social connection
Practical resources
How to effectively provide social support
Parental guide to climate change: how to help kids build interpersonal skills and relationships
References
Budziszewska, M., & Jonsson, S. E. (2021). From Climate Anxiety to Climate Action: An Existential Perspective on Climate Change Concerns Within Psychotherapy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 002216782199324. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167821993243
Clayton, S. (2021). Climate Change and Mental Health. Current Environmental Health Reports, 8(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-020-00303-3
Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., Minor, K., Hayes, K., Williams, K. G., & Howard, C. (2020). Ecological grief and anxiety: The start of a healthy response to climate change? The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(7), e261–e263. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30144-3
Ferreira, R. J. (2020). Climate change, resilience, and trauma: Course of action through research,
policy, and practice. Traumatology, 26(3), 246–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/trm0000282
Fraser, J., Pantesco, V., Plemons, K., Gupta, R., & Rank, S. J. (2013). Sustaining the Conservationist. Ecopsychology, 5(2), 70–79. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2012.0076
Frydenberg, E. (2020). My journey in coping research and practice: The impetus and the relevance. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 37(1), 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1017/edp.2020.9
Gibson, K., Haslam, N., & Kaplan, I. (2019). Distressing encounters in the context of climate change: Idioms of distress, determinants, and responses to distress in Tuvalu. Transcultural Psychiatry, 56(4), 667–696. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461519847057
Kipp, A., Cunsolo, A., Vodden, K., King, N., Manners, S., & Harper, S. L. (2019). At-a-glance Climate change impacts on health and well-being in rural and remote regions across Canada: A synthesis of the literature. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada : Research, Policy and Practice, 39(4), 122–126.
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-anxiety and environmental education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Sanson, A. V., Hoorn, J. V., & Burke, S. E. L. (2019). Responding to the Impacts of the Climate Crisis on Children and Youth. Child Development Perspectives, 13(4), 201–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12342
Taylor, S. (2020). Anxiety disorders, climate change, and the challenges ahead: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 76, 102313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102313
Verlie, B., Clark, E., Jarrett, T., & Supriyono, E. (2021). Educators’ experiences and strategies for responding to ecological distress. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 37(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2020.34
Usher, K., Durkin, J., & Bhullar, N. (2019). Eco-anxiety: How thinking about climate change-related environmental decline is affecting our mental health. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 28(6), 1233–1234. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12673
Our partners
Our team
Katharine (Katie) Greenaway is a Senior Lecturer in social psychology at the University of Melbourne (katharinegreenaway.com). Katie completed her PhD at the University of Queensland before being awarded a fellowship with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award. She is currently funded by an ARC Future Fellowship and an ARC Discovery Project. Katie’s research aims to understand how people form social connections, and what benefits these connections have for people’s well-being and social lives. For this work, Katie has received multiple awards for early career research excellence and has attracted over $3 million in research funding.
William Bingley is a postdoctoral research fellow in psychology at the University of Queensland, specialising in communication, identity, and emotion. William’s research suggests that ‘information access regulation’ concepts such as secrecy, confidentiality, and privacy affect individual, interpersonal, and group outcomes through a shared mechanism—social identity. In addition to this line of research, William is currently working on projects relating to human-centred AI, eco-anxiety, video-teleconferencing, collective action, and confidentiality breaches.
Anh Tran is a PhD candidate in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences. Her research focuses on emotions and emotion regulation as an interpersonal process in everyday life. A Master of Applied Psychology graduate from the University of Melbourne, she is also interested in translating research findings into actionable insights to solve practical problems.
Candice Boyd is an artist-geographer with a background in clinical psychology. She completed a second PhD in Cultural Geography and the Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne in 2015 and is now an ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. She is currently researching spaces of mental health and well-being, regional youth engagement, and climate-related mental health issues. She is also a Research Associate with the Indigenous Knowledge Institute at the University of Melbourne, studying the social and emotional well-being of Aboriginal Elders in regional Australia.
Nicholas Van Dam is the inaugural Director of the Contemplative Studies Centre and a Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Nicholas is a highly regarded global leader in contemplative research and practice. His vision for the Contemplative Studies Centre reflects a desire for inclusivity, authenticity, integrity, and excellence, embedded within a rigorous ethical framework to ensure retention of the ethos of contemplative practices while simultaneously promoting their empirical study.
Kari Gibson is a psychologist at The Viewpoint and a Research Fellow at Phoenix Australia, the Australian National Centre of Excellence in Posttraumatic Mental Health. Her research explores the relationships between climate change, environmental disaster and mental health, and ways to increase resilience and support recovery after disaster among marginalized populations.
Elise Kalokerinos is a Senior Lecturer in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, where she co-directs the Functions of Emotions in Everyday Life (FEEL) Lab. Her research centres on emotion, motivation, and self-regulation. She uses multiple methods to investigate these topics, with a focus on experience sampling studies conducted in everyday life.
Yoshihisa Kashima is Professor of Psychology at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on the psychology of cultural dynamics – how psychological processes contribute to the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture over time, with particular emphasis on culture of sustainability. He is currently interested in computational modelling of cultural dynamics in complex social-ecological systems (interaction of human population with ecosystems), and his long-term aspiration is to understand the complex interplay among psychological processes, social networks dynamics, and cultural transformation in contemporary society.
Peter Koval is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Melbourne. His research interests lie at the intersection of social, personality and clinical psychology with a focus on everyday emotional processes, including how people experience and regulate their emotions in response to everyday events, and how these processes relate to wellbeing and psychopathology.
Dianna McDonald is a researcher in the Behavioural Insights and Social Research Team at Sustainability Victoria. She has been at SV for 4 years and during this time has undertaken two major pieces of state-wide social research - these include Victorians’ Perceptions of Climate Change and the Linking Health and Climate Change research which included surveying the public as well as over 700 Victorian healthcare professionals. Prior to joining SV she spent several years working in health and research organisations, including 8 years in Oxford at the Picker Institute measuring patient centred care.
On-going areas of interest include increasing the public understanding of the links between health and climate change, and the perceived priority of climate change action.
Publication on multiple needs framework
Bingley, W. J., Tran, A., Boyd, C. P., Gibson, K., Kalokerinos, E. K., Koval, P., Kashima, Y., McDonald, D., & Greenaway, K. H. (2022). A multiple needs framework for climate change anxiety interventions. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001012
Other relevant publications on climate change anxiety and related psychological processes
Bingley, W.J., Greenaway, K.H., & Fielding, K.S. (2019). Greening the physical environment of organizational behavior. In Ayoko, O.B. & Ashkanasy, N.M. (Eds.), Organizational Behavior and the Physical Environment, pp. 167-184. Routledge: New York.
Boyd, C.P., & Parr, H. (2020). Climate change and rural mental health: A social geographic perspective. Rural and Remote Health, 20, no. 6337.
Duffy, M., Boyd, C.P., Barry, K., & Askland, H. (2021). Collective emotions and resilient regional communities. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51812-7_79-1
Gibson, K., Barnett, J., Haslam, N., & Kaplan, I. (2020). The mental health impacts of climate change: Findings from a Pacific Island atoll nation. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 73, 102237.
Gibson, K., Haslam, N., & Kaplan, I. (2019). Distressing encounters in the context of climate change: Idioms of distress, determinants, and response to distress in Tuvalu. Transcultural Psychiatry, 0(0) 1–30.
Gibson, K., Little, J., Cowlishaw, S., Toromon, T., O’Donnell, M.L. (2021). Piloting a scalable, post-trauma psychosocial intervention in Tuvalu: The Skills fOr Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) Program. European Journal of Psychotraumatology.
Greenaway, K.H., Haslam, S.A., & Bingley, W.J. (2018). Are “they” out to get me? A social identity model of paranoia. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 22(7), 984-1001
Hornsey, M.J., Fielding, K.S., McStay, R., Reser, J.P., Bradely, G.L., & Greenaway, K.H. (2015). Evidence for motivated control: The ironic link between threat and efficacy beliefs about climate change. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 42, 57–65. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.02.003.
Jugert, P., Greenaway, K.H., Barth, M., Büchner, R., Eisentraut, S., & Fritsche, I. (2016). Collective efficacy increases pro-environmental intentions through increasing self-efficacy. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 48, 12–23.
O’Donnell, M.L., Lau, W., Fredrickson, J., Gibson, K., Bryant, R.A., Bisson, J. et al. (2020). An open label pilot study of a brief psychosocial intervention for disaster and trauma survivors. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 483.
Smith, J.R., Louis, W.R., Terry, D.J., Greenaway, K.H., Clarke, M.R., & Cheng, X. (2012). Congruent or conflicted? The impact of injunctive and descriptive norms on environmental intentions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32, 353–361. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.06.001.