Cuartas Jorge, Vergunst Francis
Department of Applied Psychology, New York University, New York, United States of America.
Centro de Estudios sobre Seguridad y Drogas (CESED), Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
PLOS Glob Public Health. 2025 Apr 8;5(4):e0004441. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0004441. eCollection 2025.
We examine empirical and conceptual considerations related to the role of nurturing care for protecting human capital formation in the context of climate change. Climate change is a pressing global challenge. Heatwaves, wildfires, storms, and floods are becoming more frequent and severe, and their direct impact and aftermath can have long-lasting negative effects on employment, education, healthcare, and access to essential services. Children are particularly vulnerable to these harms due to their developmental immaturity and limited capacity to mitigate and avoid risks [1,2]. Consequently, parents and other adult primary caregivers - such as grandparents, relatives, and foster parents (hereafter "caregivers") - provide the primary buffer between climate hazards and adverse developmental outcomes. They do this through nurturing care, defined as the provision of stable environments that promote children's health and nutrition, safety and security, opportunities for learning, and emotionally supportive relationships [3]. Despite the central role of nurturing care for children's life outcomes, it rarely appears in climate change research and policy discourse.
我们考察了在气候变化背景下，养育照护对保护人力资本形成所起作用的实证和概念考量。气候变化是一项紧迫的全球挑战。热浪、野火、风暴和洪水正变得愈发频繁和严重，其直接影响及后果会对就业、教育、医疗保健以及基本服务的获取产生长期负面影响。由于儿童发育不成熟且减轻和规避风险的能力有限，他们尤其容易受到这些危害的影响[1,2]。因此，父母以及其他主要成年照料者——如祖父母、亲属和养父母（以下简称“照料者”）——在气候危害与不良发育结果之间起到了主要缓冲作用。他们通过养育照护来做到这一点，养育照护被定义为提供稳定的环境，以促进儿童的健康与营养、安全保障、学习机会以及情感支持性的关系[3]。尽管养育照护对儿童生活结果起着核心作用，但它在气候变化研究和政策讨论中却很少出现。
