Pinho Mariana
ECOMARE, Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
Front Psychol. 2025 Mar 25;16:1579893. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1579893. eCollection 2025.
Climate change is one of society's most severe crisis, presenting a health threat to humans with serious impacts on mental health. Climate anxiety has been identified as an important mental health consequence of climate change.
The current study examined the role of social psychological characteristics on climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior, using a nationally representative sample of Portuguese parents who completed extensive questionnaires.
More central parental identities negatively correlated with and predicted climate change anxiety, revealing that a central parental identity can be a protective factor against mental health issues. Parental identity centrality also predicted greater engagement in pro-environmental behavior. The findings further showed that environmental identity and climate change perceptions were positively related and predicted higher levels climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. Finally, parental identity centrality was linked to greater pro-environmental behavior through climate change anxiety, bringing important contributions to research on the underlying mechanisms that shape pro-environmental behavior.
The findings shed light on the complex mechanisms underlying and influencing climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior, necessary to mitigate the acute consequences of the climate crisis.
气候变化是社会面临的最严峻危机之一，对人类健康构成威胁，尤其对心理健康产生严重影响。气候焦虑已被确认为气候变化导致的一项重要心理健康问题。
本研究以葡萄牙父母为全国代表性样本，通过他们填写的大量问卷，考察了社会心理特征在气候变化焦虑和环保行为中的作用。
父母身份认同越核心，与气候变化焦虑的相关性越负，且能预测气候变化焦虑，这表明核心的父母身份认同可能是预防心理健康问题的一个保护因素。父母身份认同的核心程度还能预测更多的环保行为参与度。研究结果还表明，环境认同与对气候变化的认知呈正相关，并能预测更高水平的气候变化焦虑和环保行为。最后，父母身份认同的核心程度通过气候变化焦虑与更多的环保行为相关联，这为研究影响环保行为的潜在机制做出了重要贡献。
这些研究结果揭示了影响气候焦虑和环保行为的复杂潜在机制，这对于缓解气候危机的严重后果至关重要。
