Climate change anxiety intervention evaluation

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:

Group of outcomes

  • Intervention TypeExamplesIndividualSocialEnvironmental
    Problem-focused action
    • Activism
    • Social engagement
    • Prosocial action
    • Pro-environmental behaviours
    • Collective action
    • Volunteering
       
    Emotion management
    • Individual and group emotional expression
    • Healthier processing of distress and trauma
    • Engagement in and discussion of emotions
    • Validation of emotions
    • Emotion regulation
       
    Social  connection
    • Building community
    • Fostering relatedness and connectedness
    • Social support provision
    • Peer interaction
      
  • Intevention typeExamplesIndividualSocialEnvironmental
    Faith/religion/spirituality
    • Faith-based practices
       
    Interpersonal skills
    • Fostering interpersonal skills
      
  • Intervention typeExamplesIndividualSocialEnvironmental
    Non-avoidant coping
    • Problem-focused coping
    • Meaning-focused coping
    • Developing active coping skills
       
    Nature
    • Active travel
    • Environmental stewardship
    • Eco-psychology
    • Implementing eco-health principles
    • Spending time in and connecting with nature
       
    Adaptation
    • Promoting psychological adaptation
      
  • Intervention typeExamplesIndividualSocialEnvironmental
    Resilience
    • Building individual resilience
    • Psychological preparedness intervention
       
    Self-perception
    • Promoting feelings of mastery and self-efficacy
    • Prompting reflection
       
    Reassurance
    • Reassuring children and young people
      that they are protected and cared for
       
    Medication
    • Oral fluoxetine, clonazepam, olanzapine
       
    Psychological therapy
    • Individual and group therapy
    • Cognitive behavioural therapy
    • Stress inoculation training
    • Danger ideation reduction therapy
       
    Role-modelling
    • Role-modelling on coping with
      climate change anxiety for children
       
    Counselling
    • Grief/loss counselling
    • Crisis counselling
       
    Creative pursuits
    • Arts and creative writing
      
  • Intervention typeExamplesIndividualSocialEnvironmental
    Education
    • Climate literacy
    • Risk communication
    • Promoting mental health benefits
      of environmental conservation