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Journal article
Climate anxiety - impairment and/or activation? Exploring the roles of mindfulness and emotion regulation
Journal of environmental psychology, Vol.105, 102664
2025
Abstract
Climate anxiety is gaining increasing attention but how it is related to both impairment and climate change activism through the use of emotion-focused coping strategies is still poorly understood. We conducted two studies to help understand psychological predictors for climate anxiety-related impairment (Study 1) and gain insights into the roles of trait mindfulness and emotion regulation for different outcomes of climate-anxious affect (Study 2). For Study 1, N = 217 participants completed an online questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that gender (being female), first-hand experience of extreme weather events, and attachment to one's place of residence contributed to reporting higher levels of impairment. Higher income as well as higher trait mindfulness (acceptance) predicted reporting lower levels of impairment. A sample of N = 453 Germans answered a second set of questionnaires for Study 2, focusing on the role of different coping strategies and their potential moderating effects with regards to two seemingly juxtaposed outcomes: impairment and activism. Replicating Study 1, trait mindfulness (acceptance) negatively predicted impairment and even buffered the relationship between climate-anxious affect and impairment. Both integrating and distancing oneself from one's climate anxiety predicted impairment but without interaction effects. Only integrative emotion regulation and climate-anxious affect were predictors of climate activism, but again we found no interaction effects. These results indicate that trait mindfulness (acceptance) and integrative emotion-regulation may play important roles in coping with climate anxiety, with mindfulness possibly attenuating climate anxiety-related impairment and integrative emotion regulation fostering climate action.
Details
- Title
- Climate anxiety - impairment and/or activation? Exploring the roles of mindfulness and emotion regulation
- Authors/Creators
- Marlis C. Wullenkord - Lund UniversityJoeline Schulz - Universität HamburgSonja M. Geiger - Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development
- Publication Details
- Journal of environmental psychology, Vol.105, 102664
- Publisher
- Elsevier Ltd.
- Number of pages
- 14
- Identifiers
- 991005792411907891
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Authors.
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Psychology
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.73 Social Psychology
- 6.73.1507 Pro-environmental Behavior
- Web Of Science research areas
- Environmental Studies
- Psychology, Multidisciplinary
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general