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Adolescent framings of climate change, psychological distancing, and implications for climate change concern and behavior

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Abstract

It is essential to understand how youth are framing climate change in order to develop effective educational opportunities and targeted communication. For this research, we asked 453 adolescent youth from the Western US to describe climate change, in their own words. Their open-ended responses were qualitatively analyzed to determine the frames employed and the level of psychological distance instantiated. Youth most frequently (n = 270) used frames associated with greater psychological distance: impacts on physical Earth systems, at a global spatial scale, and at a future time. Less frequently, youth (n = 60) used frames associated with nearer psychological distance: impacts on people, plants, and animals; at a local scale; and happening now. Additionally, this research employed correlational analysis to explore the relationship between youth’s psychological distancing to climate change (as represented in their open-ended responses) and their self-reported concern and mitigating behavior. Youth who used a psychologically near discourse reported more concern about climate change than those who used a psychologically distant discourse. However, there was not a statistically significant correlation between psychological distance and behavior. This research may imply the need to communicate climate change in ways to decrease youth’s psychological distancing, connecting climate change’s physical effects to people, social systems, local places, and to the present time. However, more research is required to establish a causal relationship between psychological distance, concern, and behavior.

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Data Availability

The data collected and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to Institutional Review Board protocol to protect minors.

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Funding

This research was supported with a research fellowship from the Stanford University Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Fellowship and with a research grant from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

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  1. Department of STEM Education, College of Education, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    K.C. Busch & Regina Ayala Chávez

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  1. K.C. Busch
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The first author contributed to all aspects of the study, including conceptualization, data collection and analysis, and writing the manuscript. The second author contributed to data analysis and writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to K.C. Busch.

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The study design was approved by the Stanford University Institutional Review Board (IRB Protocol #35940).

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Busch, K., Ayala Chávez, R. Adolescent framings of climate change, psychological distancing, and implications for climate change concern and behavior. Climatic Change 171, 21 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03349-4

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