Climate Anxiety and Mental Health in Germany
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Explanation of the Methods
2.1. Description of the Sample
2.2. Dependent Variables
2.3. Independent Variables
2.4. Statistical Analysis
3. Results of the Analyses
3.1. Sample Characteristics and Prevalence Rates
3.2. Regression Analysis
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
- Steffen, W.; Richardson, K.; Rockström, J.; Cornell, S.E.; Fetzer, I.; Bennett, E.M.; Biggs, R.; Carpenter, S.R.; De Vries, W.; De Wit, C.A. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science 2015, 347, 1259855. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Green Version]
- Panu, P. Anxiety and the Ecological Crisis: An Analysis of Eco-Anxiety and Climate Anxiety. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7836. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Coffey, Y.; Bhullar, N.; Durkin, J.; Islam, M.S.; Usher, K. Understanding eco-anxiety: A systematic scoping review of current literature and identified knowledge gaps. J. Clim. Chang. Health 2021, 3, 100047. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Hajek, A.; König, H.-H. Climate anxiety in Germany. Public Health 2022, 212, 89–94. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Innocenti, M.; Santarelli, G.; Faggi, V.; Castellini, G.; Manelli, I.; Magrini, G.; Galassi, F.; Ricca, V. Psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Climate Change Anxiety Scale. J. Clim. Chang. Health 2021, 3, 100080. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Mouguiama-Daouda, C.; Blanchard, M.A.; Coussement, C.; Heeren, A. On the Measurement of Climate Change Anxiety: French Validation of the Climate Anxiety Scale. Psychol. Belg. 2022, 62, 123. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Clayton, S. Climate anxiety: Psychological responses to climate change. J. Anxiety Disord. 2020, 74, 102263. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Hajek, A.; König, H.-H. Climate Anxiety, Loneliness and Perceived Social Isolation. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 14991. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Heeren, A.; Mouguiama-Daouda, C.; Contreras, A. On climate anxiety and the threat it may pose to daily life functioning and adaptation: A study among European and African French-speaking participants. Clim. Chang. 2022, 173, 15. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Reyes, M.E.S.; Carmen, B.P.B.; Luminarias, M.E.P.; Mangulabnan, S.A.N.B.; Ogunbode, C.A. An investigation into the relationship between climate change anxiety and mental health among Gen Z Filipinos. Curr. Psychol. 2021, 48, 7448–7456. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Schwartz, S.E.; Benoit, L.; Clayton, S.; Parnes, M.F.; Swenson, L.; Lowe, S.R. Climate change anxiety and mental health: Environmental activism as buffer. Curr. Psychol. 2022, 1–14. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Searle, K.; Gow, K. Do concerns about climate change lead to distress? Int. J. Clim. Chang. Strateg. Manag. 2010, 4, 362–379. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Wullenkord, M.C.; Tröger, J.; Hamann, K.R.; Loy, L.S.; Reese, G. Anxiety and climate change: A validation of the Climate Anxiety Scale in a German-speaking quota sample and an investigation of psychological correlates. Clim. Chang. 2021, 168, 20. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Buoli, M.; Grassi, S.; Caldiroli, A.; Carnevali, G.S.; Mucci, F.; Iodice, S.; Cantone, L.; Pergoli, L.; Bollati, V. Is there a link between air pollution and mental disorders? Environ. Int. 2018, 118, 154–168. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Cianconi, P.; Betrò, S.; Janiri, L. The impact of climate change on mental health: A systematic descriptive review. Front. Psychiatry 2020, 11, 74. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Ho, R.C.; Zhang, M.W.; Ho, C.S.; Pan, F.; Lu, Y.; Sharma, V.K. Impact of 2013 south Asian haze crisis: Study of physical and psychological symptoms and perceived dangerousness of pollution level. BMC Psychiatry 2014, 14, 81. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Green Version]
- Xue, T.; Zhu, T.; Zheng, Y.; Zhang, Q. Declines in mental health associated with air pollution and temperature variability in China. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 2165. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Fountoulakis, K.N.; Apostolidou, M.K.; Atsiova, M.B.; Filippidou, A.K.; Florou, A.K.; Gousiou, D.S.; Katsara, A.R.; Mantzari, S.N.; Padouva-Markoulaki, M.; Papatriantafyllou, E.I. Self-reported changes in anxiety, depression and suicidality during the COVID-19 lockdown in Greece. J. Affect. Disord. 2021, 279, 624–629. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Olesen, S.C.; Butterworth, P.; Leach, L.S.; Kelaher, M.; Pirkis, J. Mental health affects future employment as job loss affects mental health: Findings from a longitudinal population study. BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13, 144. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Hohls, J.K.; König, H.-H.; Quirke, E.; Hajek, A. Anxiety, Depression and Quality of Life—A Systematic Review of Evidence from Longitudinal Observational Studies. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 12022. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Bock, J.-O.; Hajek, A.; Weyerer, S.; Werle, J.; Wagner, M.; Maier, W.; Stark, A.; Kaduszkiewicz, H.; Wiese, B.; Moor, L.; et al. The Impact of Depressive Symptoms on Healthcare Costs in Late Life: Longitudinal Findings from the AgeMooDe Study. Am. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 2017, 25, 131–141. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Hohls, J.K.; Koenig, H.-H.; Raynik, Y.I.; Hajek, A. A sysstematic review of the association of anxiety with health care utilization and costs in people aged 65 years and older. J. Affect. Disord. 2018, 232, 163–176. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Greenberg, J.; Pyszczynski, T.; Solomon, S. The Causes and Consequences of a Need for Self-Esteem: A Terror Management Theory. In Public Self and Private Self; Baumeister, R.F., Ed.; Springer: New York, NY, USA, 1986; pp. 189–212. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Hajek, A.; König, H.-H. Do Individuals with High Climate Anxiety Believe That They Will Die Earlier? First Evidence from Germany. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 5064. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Kroenke, K.; Spitzer, R.L.; Williams, J.B. The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure. J. Gen. Int. Med. 2001, 16, 606–613. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Manea, L.; Gilbody, S.; McMillan, D. Optimal cut-off score for diagnosing depression with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9): A meta-analysis. CMAJ 2012, 184, E191–E196. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Spitzer, R.L.; Kroenke, K.; Williams, J.B.; Löwe, B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. Arch. Int. Med. 2006, 166, 1092–1097. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Clayton, S.; Karazsia, B.T. Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. J. Environ. Psychol. 2020, 69, 101434. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Lee, S.A. Coronavirus Anxiety Scale: A brief mental health screener for COVID-19 related anxiety. Death Stud. 2020, 44, 393–401. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Spitzenstätter, D.; Schnell, T. The existential dimension of the pandemic: Death attitudes, personal worldview, and coronavirus anxiety. Death Stud. 2020, 46, 1031–1041. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Hajek, A.; König, H.-H. Prevalence and correlates of coronavirus anxiety in Germany: Results of a nationally representative survey. Death Stud. 2022, 47, 287–295. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Shaw, B.P. Meeting assumptions in the estimation of reliability. Stata J. 2021, 21, 1021–1027. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Ogunbode, C.A.; Pallesen, S.; Böhm, G.; Doran, R.; Bhullar, N.; Aquino, S.; Marot, T.; Schermer, J.A.; Wlodarczyk, A.; Lu, S.; et al. Negative emotions about climate change are related to insomnia symptoms and mental health: Cross-sectional evidence from 25 countries. Curr. Psychol. 2021, 42, 845–854. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Benca, R.M.; Peterson, M.J. Insomnia and depression. Sleep Med. 2008, 9, S3–S9. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Major, R.J.; Whelton, W.J.; Duff, C.T. Secure your buffers or stare at the sun? Terror management theory and psychotherapy integration. J. Psychother. Integr. 2016, 26, 22. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Variables | Characteristics of the Variables | Total Sample |
---|---|---|
Gender | Male | 1554 (50.3) |
Female | 1531 (49.5) | |
Diverse | 6 (0.2) | |
Age (in years) | 46.5 (15.3) | |
Children in own household | No | 2158 (69.8) |
Yes | 933 (30.2) | |
Marital status | Single/Divorced/Widowed/Married, not living together with spouse | 1266 (41.0) |
Married, living together with spouse | 1825 (59.0) | |
Education | Upper secondary school | 1234 (39.9) |
Qualification for applied upper secondary school | 356 (11.5) | |
Polytechnic secondary school | 196 (6.3) | |
Intermediate secondary school | 956 (30.9) | |
Lower secondary school/Without school-leaving qualification | 333 (10.8) | |
Currently in school training/education | 16 (0.5) | |
Employment status | Full-time employment | 1365 (44.2) |
Retired | 646 (20.9) | |
Other | 1080 (34.9) | |
Smoking status | Yes, daily | 722 (23.4) |
Yes, sometimes | 238 (7.7) | |
No, not anymore | 943 (30.5) | |
Never a smoker | 1188 (38.4) | |
Alcohol consumption | Daily | 199 (6.4) |
Several times per week | 544 (17.6) | |
Once per week | 466 (15.1) | |
1–3 times per month | 545 (17.6) | |
Less often | 746 (24.1) | |
Never | 591 (19.1) | |
Sports activities | No sports activity | 838 (27.1) |
Less than one hour per week | 575 (18.6) | |
Regularly, 1–2 h per week | 771 (24.9) | |
Regularly, 2–4 h per week | 490 (15.9) | |
Regularly, more than 4 h per week | 417 (13.5) | |
Chronic diseases | Absence of at least one chronic disease | 1673 (54.1) |
Presence of at least one chronic disease | 1418 (45.9) | |
Self-rated health (from 1 = very bad to 5 = very good) | 3.6 (0.9) | |
Coronavirus anxiety scale (from 0 to 20, with higher values reflecting higher coronavirus anxiety) | 1.4 (3.1) | |
Climate anxiety score (from 1 to 7, with higher values reflecting higher climate anxiety) | 2.0 (1.2) | |
Probable depression | Absence of probable depression | 2377 (76.9) |
Presence of probable depression | 714 (23.1) | |
Probable anxiety | Absence of probable anxiety | 2595 (84.0) |
Presence of probable anxiety | 496 (16.0) |
Depressive Symptoms | Anxiety Symptoms | Climate Anxiety | Age | Self-Rated Health | Coronavirus Anxiety | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Depressive symptoms | 1.00 | |||||
Anxiety symptoms | 0.82 *** | 1.00 | ||||
Climate anxiety | 0.30 *** | 0.31 *** | 1.00 | |||
Age | −0.24 *** | −0.23 *** | −0.18 *** | 1.00 | ||
Self-rated health | −0.41 *** | −0.34 *** | −0.02 | −0.27 *** | 1.00 | |
Coronavirus anxiety | 0.44 *** | 0.45 *** | 0.44 *** | −0.15 *** | −0.12 *** | 1.00 |
Independent Variables | Outcome: Probable Depression | Outcome: Probable Anxiety |
---|---|---|
Climate anxiety | 1.37 *** | 1.27 *** |
(1.25–1.50) | (1.15–1.40) | |
Potential confounders | ✓ | ✓ |
Pseudo-R2 | 0.30 | 0.26 |
Observations | 3091 | 3091 |
Independent Variables | Probable Depression | Probable Anxiety |
---|---|---|
Climate anxiety | 1.37 *** | 1.27 *** |
(1.25–1.50) | (1.15–1.40) | |
Sex: - Female (Ref.: Men) | 1.56 *** | 1.79 *** |
(1.23–1.98) | (1.38–2.33) | |
- Diverse | 0.86 | 0.54 |
(0.10–7.42) | (0.05–5.82) | |
Age (in years) | 0.95 *** | 0.96 *** |
(0.94–0.96) | (0.95–0.97) | |
Children in own household: - Yes (Ref.: No) | 0.87 | 0.84 |
(0.68–1.12) | (0.64–1.10) | |
Marital status: - Living together: married or in a partnership (Ref.: widowed; divorced; single; living separately: married or in partnership) | 0.81 + | 0.89 |
(0.65–1.01) | (0.70–1.14) | |
Highest educational degree: - Qualification for applied upper secondary school (Ref.: upper secondary school) | 0.95 | 0.74 |
(0.67–1.35) | (0.50–1.10) | |
- Polytechnic secondary school | 0.87 | 0.84 |
(0.54–1.41) | (0.49–1.43) | |
- Intermediate secondary school | 0.85 | 0.91 |
(0.65–1.10) | (0.69–1.21) | |
- Lower secondary school/Without school-leaving qualification | 0.81 | 0.85 |
(0.55–1.19) | (0.56–1.30) | |
- Currently in school training/education | 0.63 | 0.54 |
(0.15–2.64) | (0.13–2.27) | |
Employment status: - Retired (Ref.: Full-time employment) | 1.01 | 0.96 |
(0.71–1.44) | (0.65–1.44) | |
- Other | 0.90 | 1.22 |
(0.70–1.15) | (0.94–1.59) | |
Smoking status: - Yes, daily (Ref.: Never a smoker) | 1.23 | 1.07 |
(0.92–1.64) | (0.78–1.46) | |
- Yes, sometimes | 1.54 * | 1.42 |
(1.03–2.28) | (0.93–2.18) | |
- No, not anymore | 1.25 + | 1.12 |
(0.96–1.63) | (0.84–1.50) | |
Alcohol consumption: - Daily (Ref.: Never) | 1.21 | 1.30 |
(0.75–1.97) | (0.77–2.18) | |
- Several times per week | 0.93 | 0.99 |
(0.65–1.34) | (0.67–1.46) | |
- Once per week | 0.88 | 0.86 |
(0.61–1.27) | (0.57–1.29) | |
- 1–3 times per month | 0.92 | 0.89 |
(0.65–1.29) | (0.61–1.29) | |
- Less often | 0.91 | 0.75 + |
(0.67–1.24) | (0.53–1.05) | |
Sports activities: - Less than one hour a week (Ref.: No sports activity) | 0.76 + | 1.05 |
(0.56–1.03) | (0.75–1.46) | |
- Regularly, 1–2 h per week | 0.75 * | 0.95 |
(0.56–1.00) | (0.69–1.30) | |
- Regularly, 2–4 h per week | 0.64 * | 0.71 + |
(0.45–0.91) | (0.48–1.07) | |
- Regularly, more than 4 h per week | 0.67 * | 0.88 |
(0.46–0.97) | (0.59–1.34) | |
Chronic diseases: - Presence of at least one chronic disease (Ref.: Absence of chronic diseases) | 1.40 ** | 1.10 |
(1.10–1.79) | (0.84–1.44) | |
Self-rated health (from 1 = very bad to 5 = very good) | 0.30 *** | 0.35 *** |
(0.26–0.35) | (0.30–0.41) | |
Coronavirus anxiety (from 0 to 20, with higher values reflecting higher coronavirus anxiety) | 1.23 *** | 1.20 *** |
(1.19–1.27) | (1.16–1.24) | |
Constant | 64.00 *** | 12.29 *** |
(27.88–146.93) | (5.16–29.30) | |
Pseudo-R2 | 0.30 | 0.26 |
Observations | 3091 | 3091 |
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Hajek, A.; König, H.-H. Climate Anxiety and Mental Health in Germany. Climate 2023, 11, 158. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli11080158
Hajek A, König H-H. Climate Anxiety and Mental Health in Germany. Climate. 2023; 11(8):158. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli11080158
Chicago/Turabian StyleHajek, André, and Hans-Helmut König. 2023. "Climate Anxiety and Mental Health in Germany" Climate 11, no. 8: 158. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli11080158