Climate concern worsens mental health one year later

Publicly released:
New Zealand

Climate concern was linked with a small rise in mental distress after one year, in a NZ study of adults (aged 18 to 98). Younger people didn’t show any more distress than other age-groups, but they did have slightly higher levels of climate concern on average. The study’s authors say that while the impact of climate worry on mental distress was small, it persisted a full year afterwards, and the decrease in wellbeing wasn’t linked to other day-to-day stress.

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Research Elsevier, Web page
Journal/
conference:
Journal of Environmental Psychology
Research:Paper
Organisation/s: Victoria University of Wellington, University of Waikato, University of Auckland
Funder: The New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study is supported by a grant from the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT0196).
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