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Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia

(1) Background: In Australia, young people are one of the most vulnerable populations to the mental health impacts of climate change. The aim of this article was to explore mental health promotion issues related to climate change for young people in Australia. (2) Methods: An exploratory mixed-metho...

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Autores principales: Gunasiri, Hasini, Wang, Yifan, Watkins, Ella-Mae, Capetola, Teresa, Henderson-Wilson, Claire, Patrick, Rebecca
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9105994/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564923
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095528
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author Gunasiri, Hasini
Wang, Yifan
Watkins, Ella-Mae
Capetola, Teresa
Henderson-Wilson, Claire
Patrick, Rebecca
author_facet Gunasiri, Hasini
Wang, Yifan
Watkins, Ella-Mae
Capetola, Teresa
Henderson-Wilson, Claire
Patrick, Rebecca
author_sort Gunasiri, Hasini
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: In Australia, young people are one of the most vulnerable populations to the mental health impacts of climate change. The aim of this article was to explore mental health promotion issues related to climate change for young people in Australia. (2) Methods: An exploratory mixed-method approach, co-led by young people, was used to engage young people living in Australia aged 18–24 years in semi-structured interviews (N = 14) and an online survey (N = 46). Data were analysed thematically and with descriptive statistics. (3) Results: Findings indicated that negative impacts included worry, eco-anxiety, stress, hopelessness/powerlessness and feelings of not having a voice. Several mediating factors, in particular social media engagement, highlighted the duality of mental health impacts for young people’s mental health. Positive impacts of climate action included feeling optimistic and in control. (4) Conclusions: This exploratory study contributes to an emerging field of public health research on young people’s mental health in a climate-impacted Australia. Climate change is a significant concern for young people, and it can negatively affect their mental health. The findings can inform the design of public health interventions that raise awareness of climate change-related mental health issues among young people and promote their participation in nature-based interventions, climate action and empowering social media engagement.
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spelling pubmed-91059942022-05-14 Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia Gunasiri, Hasini Wang, Yifan Watkins, Ella-Mae Capetola, Teresa Henderson-Wilson, Claire Patrick, Rebecca Int J Environ Res Public Health Article (1) Background: In Australia, young people are one of the most vulnerable populations to the mental health impacts of climate change. The aim of this article was to explore mental health promotion issues related to climate change for young people in Australia. (2) Methods: An exploratory mixed-method approach, co-led by young people, was used to engage young people living in Australia aged 18–24 years in semi-structured interviews (N = 14) and an online survey (N = 46). Data were analysed thematically and with descriptive statistics. (3) Results: Findings indicated that negative impacts included worry, eco-anxiety, stress, hopelessness/powerlessness and feelings of not having a voice. Several mediating factors, in particular social media engagement, highlighted the duality of mental health impacts for young people’s mental health. Positive impacts of climate action included feeling optimistic and in control. (4) Conclusions: This exploratory study contributes to an emerging field of public health research on young people’s mental health in a climate-impacted Australia. Climate change is a significant concern for young people, and it can negatively affect their mental health. The findings can inform the design of public health interventions that raise awareness of climate change-related mental health issues among young people and promote their participation in nature-based interventions, climate action and empowering social media engagement. MDPI 2022-05-02 /pmc/articles/PMC9105994/ /pubmed/35564923 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095528 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gunasiri, Hasini
Wang, Yifan
Watkins, Ella-Mae
Capetola, Teresa
Henderson-Wilson, Claire
Patrick, Rebecca
Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia
title Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia
title_full Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia
title_fullStr Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia
title_full_unstemmed Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia
title_short Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia
title_sort hope, coping and eco-anxiety: young people’s mental health in a climate-impacted australia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9105994/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564923
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095528
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