Journal of Environmental Psychology, September 2023

The concerned steward effect: Exploring the relationship between climate anxiety, psychological distress, and self-reported climate related behavioural engagement

Previous research has demonstrated that heightened levels of climate change anxiety are correlated with psychological distress. Some have argued that engagement in pro-environmental behaviour might be associated with lower levels of climate anxiety and psychological distress.

As such, this study aimed to explore the association between pro-environmental behavioural engagement, climate change anxiety, and generalized psychological distress. Participants living in British Columbia, Canada aged 16+ completed a serial cross-sectional online survey. We examined inter-relationships between self-reported Climate-related Behavioural Engagement (BE) scores, Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS) scores, and Kessler Psychological Distress (K6) scores using scatterplots, Spearman Rank Correlation and multivariable linear regression.