Climate Change- a Threat to Mental Health of Youths. Here’s How to Help Them Cope.

All of us have seen the pictures and read the stories: the potentially fatal heat waves. Unprecedentedly fierce wildfires. Entire neighbourhoods being washed away by the storms that broke records. rising sea levels, coastal floods, and glacier melting.

As California wildfires continue into the winter, storm survivors clean up the damage caused by floods. Let us discuss a climate change victim that goes unreported: young people's emotional health.

The effects of climate change, both locally and globally, worry 14-year-old Abby Rafeek. She says she is especially concerned about wildfires.

“That’s closer to where I live, so it’s a bigger problem for me personally, and it also causes a lot of damage to the surrounding areas,” she says. “And also, the air gets messed up.”

The survey was adapted by hospital pediatric emergency physician Rammy Assaf from one created for adults five years prior.

Last year, he gave his version to more than 800 children and their guardians, aged 12 to 17 years. According to the results, preliminary findings indicate that climate change poses a significant threat to young people's emotional stability and general wellbeing.

More open-ended questions have been asked to the children by Assaf, such as whether they think that climate change will be resolved in their lifetimes, how they feel when they read about extreme climate events, what they think about the planet's future, and who they can talk to about their worries.

“When asked about their outlook for the future, the first words they will use are helpless, powerless, hopeless,” Assaf says. “These are very strong emotions.”

Assaf says he wants to see mental health tests at paediatricians' offices and other places where kids receive medical treatment include questions on climate change. Though not specifically in relation to mental health screening, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that paediatricians' clinical practices and curriculum at medical schools include counseling on climate change.

The overall youth mental health crisis, which has been characterised by an increase in despair, loneliness, and suicide over the past ten years, although there are new indications that it may be it may be improving slightly, Assaf believes fear about climate change connects with this issue.

A 2022 Harris Poll of 1,500 U.S. teenagers found that 89% of them regularly think about the environment, “with the majority feeling more worried than hopeful.” Furthermore, 69% of respondents expressed concern that they and their family would soon be impacted by climate change. Additionally, 82% of respondents stated that they anticipated having to depend important life decisions, such as where to reside and whether to have children, on the state of the environment.

In contrast, “adolescents grew up with it as a real thing,” Clayton says. “Knowing you have the bulk of your life ahead of you gives you a very different view of what your life will be like.” "This feeling of betrayal is associated with greater anxiety about the climate," she continues, adding that younger people in particular feel deceived by their government, which they believe is not treating the issue seriously enough.

You can assist if you are a parent whose kids exhibit symptoms of climate anxiety.

Louise Chawla, professor emerita in the environmental design who co-founded the nonprofit Growing Up Boulder, that works with the city’s schools to encourage kids to engage civically, including to help shape their local environment.

Chawla and others recommend family activities such as:

1) Walking

2) Biking

3) Participating in clean-up or recycling activities

4) Encourage children to join activities and advocacy efforts sponsored by environmental, civic, or religious organizations.

By letting children know they are not alone and that they can take initiative, working with others can help reduce stress and feelings of helplessness.

Concerns about climate change should be viewed as educational opportunities that could possibly influence some children's futures according to Vickie Mays, professor of psychology and health policy at UCLA, who teaches a course on mental health and climate change, one of eight similar courses that are now being offered at UC campuses.

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. 

(KFF/SD)