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An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions
BACKGROUND: The study of climate change through a generational lens is meaningful when one considers the distinct attitudes, behaviors, values, and motivations of each generation. Individuals born between 1980 and 1999, referred to as the Millennial Generation (Millennials) and individuals born up t...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10010654/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36915081 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15353-z |
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author | Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina Petrescu, Dacinia Crina Ivan, Adrian Tenter, Ancuta |
author_facet | Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina Petrescu, Dacinia Crina Ivan, Adrian Tenter, Ancuta |
author_sort | Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The study of climate change through a generational lens is meaningful when one considers the distinct attitudes, behaviors, values, and motivations of each generation. Individuals born between 1980 and 1999, referred to as the Millennial Generation (Millennials) and individuals born up to five years before or after 2000, referred to as Generation Z (Gen Z), may differ widely in their views, values, attitudes, and behaviors. This may lead to conflicts between these two cohorts. As Gen Z enters the labor market, their first-level supervisors will be, in many cases, the Millennials, who may view the topic of climate change-health concern nexus very differently than their Gen Z subordinates. Considering the perspectives of each generation may offer insights on how to engage them to act in an environmentally responsible way to counteract climate change effects. OBJECTIVE: The study reveals similarities and differences in how Millennials and Gen Z perceive the climate change-health concern nexus, which illuminates the understanding of the potential generational conflicts and the critical points where intervention is needed. METHOD: Interview data from 41 participants were analyzed via thematic analysis using the Quirkos software program. Reporting is in accordance with the COREQ guidelines. RESULTS: The interview questions elicited responses related to five dimensions: (i) Views of individual and community health; (ii) Knowledge around climate change; (iii) Perceived health impact; (iv) Attitudes towards climate change; (v) Behaviors related to climate change. The findings revealed a set of commonalities and differences in understanding the climate change-health concern nexus between the participants representative of each of the generations examined. One main result is that while most interviewees perceived changes in summer and winter temperatures, they failed to articulate how climate change affected their health. CONCLUSION: Thematic analysis revealed that the commonalities of views outweigh the differences between the two generations. A relevant remark is that participants can be described rather as “observers” than “players” since they do not tend to see themselves (through their behavior and their contribution) as active participants in the goal to fight climate change. Consequently, both generations undergo what Stephen Gardiner [1] called “intergenerational buck-passing.” SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-15353-z. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10010654 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100106542023-03-14 An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina Petrescu, Dacinia Crina Ivan, Adrian Tenter, Ancuta BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: The study of climate change through a generational lens is meaningful when one considers the distinct attitudes, behaviors, values, and motivations of each generation. Individuals born between 1980 and 1999, referred to as the Millennial Generation (Millennials) and individuals born up to five years before or after 2000, referred to as Generation Z (Gen Z), may differ widely in their views, values, attitudes, and behaviors. This may lead to conflicts between these two cohorts. As Gen Z enters the labor market, their first-level supervisors will be, in many cases, the Millennials, who may view the topic of climate change-health concern nexus very differently than their Gen Z subordinates. Considering the perspectives of each generation may offer insights on how to engage them to act in an environmentally responsible way to counteract climate change effects. OBJECTIVE: The study reveals similarities and differences in how Millennials and Gen Z perceive the climate change-health concern nexus, which illuminates the understanding of the potential generational conflicts and the critical points where intervention is needed. METHOD: Interview data from 41 participants were analyzed via thematic analysis using the Quirkos software program. Reporting is in accordance with the COREQ guidelines. RESULTS: The interview questions elicited responses related to five dimensions: (i) Views of individual and community health; (ii) Knowledge around climate change; (iii) Perceived health impact; (iv) Attitudes towards climate change; (v) Behaviors related to climate change. The findings revealed a set of commonalities and differences in understanding the climate change-health concern nexus between the participants representative of each of the generations examined. One main result is that while most interviewees perceived changes in summer and winter temperatures, they failed to articulate how climate change affected their health. CONCLUSION: Thematic analysis revealed that the commonalities of views outweigh the differences between the two generations. A relevant remark is that participants can be described rather as “observers” than “players” since they do not tend to see themselves (through their behavior and their contribution) as active participants in the goal to fight climate change. Consequently, both generations undergo what Stephen Gardiner [1] called “intergenerational buck-passing.” SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-15353-z. BioMed Central 2023-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10010654/ /pubmed/36915081 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15353-z Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Petrescu-Mag, Ruxandra Malina Petrescu, Dacinia Crina Ivan, Adrian Tenter, Ancuta An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions |
title | An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions |
title_full | An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions |
title_fullStr | An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions |
title_full_unstemmed | An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions |
title_short | An intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the Millennials’ and Gen Z participants’ perceptions |
title_sort | intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the millennials’ and gen z participants’ perceptions |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10010654/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36915081 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15353-z |
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