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Young People and Global Climate Change: Emotions, Coping, and Engagement in Everyday Life

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Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 8))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on research about how young people, mainly those from Northern Europe, relate to global climate change. Although in a sense this threat is spatially and temporally remote from the young people’s everyday lives, they come in contact with climate change through media and school and also relate concrete experiences to the threat. In this chapter climate change is seen as an existential, moral, and political problem. The aim is to investigate what emotions young people experience, how they cope, and how coping strategies are related to environmental efficacy, environmental engagement, and subjective wellbeing. Worry seems to be the most common emotion. Young people actively cope by using: (1) Problem-focused coping, i.e., thinking about, planning, and trying to do something to fight climate change; (2) Emotion-focused coping, for instance getting rid of negative emotions with distancing strategies; (3) Meaning-focused coping and hope, i.e., being able to switch perspective and see both negative and positive trends, and putting trust in more powerful societal actors. Meaning-focused coping seems to be an especially constructive strategy, since it is positively associated with environmental efficacy and engagement, as well as wellbeing. The chapter ends by arguing that it is important to let young people give voice to their climate-related emotions and that it is vital to realize that coping not only takes place at an individual level but is also a social process in which the adult world plays an important role.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Uppsala University, 751 05, Uppsala, Sweden

    Maria Ojala

  2. JPS, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

    Maria Ojala

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  1. Maria Ojala
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Correspondence to Maria Ojala .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health, Sciences and Social Ca, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom

    Nicola Ansell

  2. Australian Centre for Cultural Environme, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

    Natascha Klocker

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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Ojala, M. (2015). Young People and Global Climate Change: Emotions, Coping, and Engagement in Everyday Life. In: Ansell, N., Klocker, N., Skelton, T. (eds) Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-95-8_3-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-95-8_3-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-4585-95-8

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