RESEARCH
Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Sustainability Interest: A Secondary Data Analysis
Summary
This analysis investigated what factors influence how much South Korean adults care about environmental sustainability. The researchers looked at things like how anxious people feel about climate change (eco-anxiety), how risky they think climate change is (climate change risk perception), how they view the future (future event cognition), and their age. They surveyed 459 adults between 19 and 65 years old using online questionnaires to measure these factors and their level of interest in environmental sustainability. The study aimed to find out which of these things were most likely to predict whether someone would be interested in protecting the environment.
The main finding of the study was that eco-anxiety was the strongest predictor of environmental sustainability interest. This means that people who felt more anxious about climate change were more likely to care about environmental sustainability. Other factors that also predicted this interest were higher climate change risk perception, being older (60-65 years), having a more positive view of the future, and being younger (under 30 years) having a lower interest compared to other age groups. The researchers suggest that mental health nurses should be aware of eco-anxiety and help people manage it, as it can be a powerful motivator for environmental action.
