The ClimaQ Study: Exploring Parental Accounts of Climate Crisis-Related Emotional Responses, Awareness, and Engagement in Actions Among Children in Greece
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
Statistical Analyses
3. Results
3.1. Demographics
3.2. Parental and Child Climate Crisis-Related Awareness and Satisfaction with Public Policies
3.3. Emotional Responses
3.4. Participation in Climate Crisis Prevention/Mitigation Behaviors and Public Actions
3.5. Communication of Climate Crisis-Related Thoughts and Worries
3.6. Logistic Regression Analyses
4. Discussion
4.1. Emotional Responses
4.2. Behavioral Responses
4.3. Communication and Family Dynamics
4.4. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Very Much | Much | Moderate | Little | Not at All | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Information | |||||
Children | 8.1 (15) | 36.6 (68) | 37.6 (70) | 16.1 (30) | 1.6 (3) |
Parents | 13.4 (25) | 51.6 (96) | 29.6 (55) | 5.4 (10) | 0 |
Satisfaction with public policies | |||||
Children | 0 | 1.1 (2) | 25.3 (47) | 35.5 (66) | 38.1 (71) |
Parents | 0 | 1.6 (3) | 19.4 (36) | 49.9 (93) | 29.1 (54) |
Parent-Reported Climate Crisis-Related Emotional Responses % (n) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Children | Parents | Parent-Reported Children’s Psychological Health % (n) | ||||||
Worry | Sadness | Anger | Worry | Sadness | Anger | |||
Very much | 7.5 (14) | 6.5 (12) | 7.5 (14) | 33.3 (62) | 32.3 (60) | 27.4 (51) | Very good | 47.3 (27) |
A lot | 31.2 (58) | 19.4 (36) | 19.9 (37) | 43.6 (81) | 40.3 (75) | 42.5 (79) | Good | 34.9 (65) |
Fairly little | 30.6 (57) | 30.6 (57) | 28.5 (53) | 17.2 (32) | 19.3 (36) | 19.4 (36) | Fair | 14.5 (27) |
Little | 23.1 (43) | 31.7 (59) | 29.0 (54) | 4.8 (9) | 6.5 (12) | 10.2 (19) | Moderate | 2.7 (5) |
No | 7.5 (14) | 11.8 (22) | 15.1 (28) | 1.1 (2) | 1.6 (3) | 0.5 (1) | Poor | 0.6 (1) |
Climate Crisis-Related Behaviors | Frequency (%) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Very Often | A Lot | Quite Often | Not Often | Not at All | |
Prevention/mitigation efforts | |||||
Children | 8.1 | 32.3 | 32.8 | 19.9 | 6.9 |
Parents | 19.9 | 50.1 | 23.6 | 5.9 | 0.5 |
Participation in public actions | |||||
Children | 1.1 | 8.6 | 23.1 | 31.2 | 36.0 |
Parents | 1.1 | 17.2 | 22.6 | 26.3 | 32.8 |
Communication of thoughts | |||||
Children | 16 (3) | 19.4 (36) | 30.6 (57) | 33.9 (63) | 14.5 (27) |
Parents | 5.4 | 23.1 | 47.8 | 20.4 | 3.2 |
Children’s Frequent Worry | Children’s Frequent Sadness | Children’s Frequent Sadness | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Crude OR (95% CI) | Adjusted OR (95% CI) | Crude OR (95% CI) | Adjusted OR (95% CI) | Crude OR (95% CI) | Adjusted OR (95% CI) | |
Gender | 0.69 (0.38–1.25) | 0.48 (0.22–1.06) | 0.66 (0.38–1.28) | 0.53 (0.23–1.19) | 0.58 (0.30–1.12) | 0.36 (0.15–0.83) |
Age | 0.99 (0.89–1.12) | 1.18 (0.49–2.83) | 1.00 (0.88–1.15) | 1.74 (0.70–4.33) | 1.11 (0.97–1.26) | 3.09 (1.18–8.11) |
Region | ||||||
Big city | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
Small town | 1.31 (0.68–2.53) | 1.86 (0.72–4.81) | 1.14 (0.54–2.42) | 1.35 (0.51–3.55) | 1.32 (0.63–2.74) | 1.38 (0.51–3.74) |
Island | 1.18 (0.19–7.33) | 1.58 (1.16–15.64) | 0.71 (0.07–6.73) | 1.16 (0.09–15.24) | 0.81 (0.09–7.70) | 1.54 (0.12–19.69) |
Village/Rural area | 1.77 (9.42–7.43) | 3.27 (0.46–24.16) | 1.00 (0.19–5.31) | 1.06 (0.15–7.54) | 0.91 (0.17–4.84) | 0.60 (0.08–4.41) |
School | ||||||
Public | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
Private | 2.20 (1.07–4.50) | 2.71 (1.01–7.28) | 1.80 (0.82–3.93) | 1.77 (0.65–4.78) | 1.07 (0.47–2.41) | 0.88 (0.32–2.43) |
Parental worry | ||||||
Not at all/A little/Fairly little | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
A lot | 4.71 (1.67–13.26) | 4.37 (1.15–16.52) | 3.80 (1.19–12.11) | 1.86 (0.44–7.95) | 4.68 (1.48–14.78) | 2.53 (0.61–10.49) |
Very much | 10.52 (3.65–30.38) | 7.80 (1.71–35.62) | 6.60 (2.05–21.28) | 2.02 (0.40–10.12) | 6.21 (1.92–20.13) | 1.87 (0.38–9.21) |
Parental sadness | ||||||
Not at all/A little/Fairly little | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
A lot | 2.31 (1.00–5.31) | 1.86 (0.56–6.20) | 4.20 (1.32–13.32) | 4.34 (1.01–18.77) | 3.13 (1.13–8.62) | 2.22 (0.58–8.44) |
Very much | 5.74 (2.43–13.58) | 1.96 (0.48–7.98) | 9.07 (2.85–28.82) | 5.89 (1.14–30.55) | 5.61 (2.04–15.43) | 2.30 (0.51–10.46) |
Parental anger | ||||||
Not at all/A little/Fairly little | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
A lot | 2.24 (1.03–4.91) | 1.10 (0.36–3.36) | 2.68 (1.03–6.99) | 0.86 (0.24–3.05) | 1.09 (0.96–1.25) | 1.59 (0.45–5.63) |
Very much | 5.24 (2.24–12.23) | 1.39 (0.35–5.51) | 5.26 (1.97–14.01) | 0.96 (0.21–4.33) | 5.88 (2.18–15.81) | 2.24 (0.48–10.40) |
Participation in actions | ||||||
Not often/Not at all | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
Quite often/A lot/Very often | 2.60 (1.38–4.68) | 0.91 (0.40–2.25) | 1.93 (0.97–3.82) | 0.95 (0.39–2.33) | 2.96 (1.49–5.85) | 1.48 (0.60–3.66) |
Adoption of behaviors | ||||||
Not often/Not at all | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
Quite often/A lot/Very often | 6.91 (2.76–17.30) | 3.61 (1.13–11.44) | 2.77 (1.14–6.71) | 0.72 (0.21–2.51) | 3.94 (1.54–10.08) | 0.93 (0.27–3.28) |
Communication | ||||||
Not often/Not at all | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
Quite often/A lot/Very often | 9.44 (4.61–19.35) | 6.16 (2.48–15.29) | 11.80 (4.60–30.26) | 13.34 (4.01–44.42) | 17.25 (6.35–46.87) | 15.63 (4.59–53.20) |
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Magklara, K.; Kapsimalli, E.; Vlassopoulos, C.; Liarakou, G.; Lazaratou, E. The ClimaQ Study: Exploring Parental Accounts of Climate Crisis-Related Emotional Responses, Awareness, and Engagement in Actions Among Children in Greece. Children 2025, 12, 432. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040432
Magklara K, Kapsimalli E, Vlassopoulos C, Liarakou G, Lazaratou E. The ClimaQ Study: Exploring Parental Accounts of Climate Crisis-Related Emotional Responses, Awareness, and Engagement in Actions Among Children in Greece. Children. 2025; 12(4):432. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040432
Chicago/Turabian StyleMagklara, Konstantina, Efstathia Kapsimalli, Chloe Vlassopoulos, Georgia Liarakou, and Eleni Lazaratou. 2025. "The ClimaQ Study: Exploring Parental Accounts of Climate Crisis-Related Emotional Responses, Awareness, and Engagement in Actions Among Children in Greece" Children 12, no. 4: 432. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040432
APA StyleMagklara, K., Kapsimalli, E., Vlassopoulos, C., Liarakou, G., & Lazaratou, E. (2025). The ClimaQ Study: Exploring Parental Accounts of Climate Crisis-Related Emotional Responses, Awareness, and Engagement in Actions Among Children in Greece. Children, 12(4), 432. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12040432