Climate-Change Worry among Two Cohorts of Late Adolescents: Exploring Macro and Micro Worries, Coping, and Relations to Climate Engagement and Well-Being

Few studies have explored climate-change worry in an in-depth manner among adolescents. Through survey studies with two cohorts of adolescents (2010, 2020) we investigated relations between different forms of climate-change worry, mental well-being, and pro-environmental behavior and what role coping plays in these relationships. Results show that climate-change worry was negatively associated with subjective wellbeing, and positively associated with climate pessimism and pro-environmental behavior. Relations were strongest between macro-worry and pro-environmental behavior, and between micro-worry and mental well-being. Problem-focused coping was a mediator between worry and pro-environmental behavior and between meaning-focused coping and behavior, while distancing decreased the positive relation between worry and problem-focused coping. Meaning-focused coping and optimism worked as buffers between macro- and micro-worry and pessimism in some, but not all, cases. Most relationships remained significant when controlling for other variables in path-models. Finally, worry was more prevalent in the 2020 cohort. Our findings highlight the need to consider different forms of worry and coping in studies about climate-change worry.