School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain.
Br J Health Psychol. 2024 Nov;29(4):1080-1095. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12746. Epub 2024 Aug 28.
The United Nations recognize the importance of balancing the needs of people and the planetary systems on which human health relies. This paper investigates the role that climate change has on human health via its influence on climate anxiety.
We conducted an intensive longitudinal study.
Participants reported levels of climate anxiety, generalized anxiety and an array of health behaviours at 20 consecutive time points, 2 weeks apart.
A network analysis shows climate anxiety and generalized anxiety not to covary, and higher levels of climate anxiety not to covary with health behaviours, except for higher levels of alcohol consumption at the within-participant level. Generalized anxiety showed completely distinct patterns of covariation with health behaviours compared with climate anxiety.
Our findings imply that climate anxiety, as conceptualized and measured in the current study, is not in itself functionally impairing in terms of associations with unhealthy behaviours, and is distinct from generalized anxiety. The results also imply that interventions to induce anxiety about the climate might not always have significant impacts on health and well-being.
联合国认识到平衡人类需求和人类健康所依赖的行星系统的重要性。本文通过研究气候变化对气候焦虑的影响来探讨气候变化对人类健康的作用。
我们进行了一项密集的纵向研究。
参与者在 20 个连续的时间点上，每隔两周报告一次气候焦虑、广泛性焦虑和一系列健康行为的水平。
网络分析显示，气候焦虑和广泛性焦虑没有共变，高水平的气候焦虑也没有与健康行为共变，除了在个体内部水平上更高的酒精摄入量。与气候焦虑相比，广泛性焦虑与健康行为的共变模式完全不同。
我们的研究结果表明，就目前的研究而言，气候焦虑在概念化和测量上本身并不会因为与不健康行为的关联而导致功能障碍，并且与广泛性焦虑不同。结果还表明，引发对气候的焦虑的干预措施并不总是对健康和幸福产生重大影响。
