Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet

Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Coping for climate resilience: climate emotions, empathy, and nature connectedness predict patterns of pro-environmental behavior and impairment in adolescents
Environmental Psychology Research Group, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9111-8781
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences.ORCID iD: 0009-0007-0962-146X
Örebro University, School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences. Faculty of Education and Psychology, Frontiers of Arctic and Global Resilience (FRONT), Teacher Education School and Society (TESS), University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. (Psykologi)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6613-5974
2026 (English)In: Climatic Change, ISSN 0165-0009, E-ISSN 1573-1480, Vol. 179, no 8, article id 180Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Facing climate change, today’s young people need to balance the challenges of being active and maintaining mental health. This study investigated climate resilience: patterns of climate engagement and mental health among adolescents. Using latent profile analysis, we identified three profiles in a sample of N = 603 Swedish adolescents: climate-resilient (17%, active and not impaired), climate-vulnerable (10%, active but slightly impaired), and climate-disengaged (73%, neither active nor impaired). Hierarchical multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that climate emotions predicted belonging to those profiles, with the climate-resilient profile characterized by strong climate sadness and anger and low climate indifference. Relative to the climate-resilient profile, adolescents in the climate-vulnerable profile felt more anxious about climate change, while adolescents in the climate-disengaged profile felt more indifferent and less anxious, sad, and angry. Relative to the climate-resilient group, reporting less empathic concern predicted membership in the climate-vulnerable profile, suggesting a potentially protective role of empathic concern. Furthermore, reporting less nature connectedness predicted belonging to the climate-disengaged profile. However, interaction analyses revealed that stronger nature connectedness might be a vulnerability factor for belonging to the climate-vulnerable profile. These findings provide tentative support that fostering empathy may contribute to resilience in the face of climate change. This seems more important than ever to understand, given the severity of the progressing climate crisis and seemingly lower climate engagement among youth.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2026. Vol. 179, no 8, article id 180
Keywords [en]
Climate emotions, Coping, Empathy, Nature connectedness, Latent profile analysis, Youth, Adolescents, Disengagement
National Category
Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-130673DOI: 10.1007/s10584-026-04275-5ISI: 001849789600001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-130673DiVA, id: diva2:2092490
Projects
The University of Oulu & The Academy of Finland Profi 7 (FRONT program, 352788).Swedish Research Council VR
Funder
Lund UniversityAcademy of Finland, 352788)Swedish Research Council, 2021–04607Available from: 2026-08-14 Created: 2026-08-14 Last updated: 2026-08-28Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Wullenkord, Marlis C.Rikner Martinsson, AmandaOjala, Maria
By organisation
School of Behavioural, Social and Legal Sciences
In the same journal
Climatic Change
Psychology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 17 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf