The two types of climate coping and what they mean for your health
Knowing how different people cope with climate change could help
policymakers communicate more effectively about the issue

Date:
January 31, 2022
Source:
University of Arizona
Summary:
When it comes to coping with climate change, there may be two types
of people: those who take action to try to improve the environment
and those who don't bother because they don't believe their actions
will make a difference. Knowing who's who could help policymakers
communicate more effectively about environmental issues, new
research suggests.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
When it comes to coping with climate change, there may be two types of
people: those who take action to try to improve the environment and
those who don't bother because they don't believe their actions will
make a difference.


========================================================================== Knowing who's who could help public policymakers better target their
messaging around climate change, suggests a new study led by University
of Arizona researcher Sabrina Helm.

Helm, an associate professor in the College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences' Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, studies climate anxiety and consumer behavior.

In her latest research, published in the journal Anxiety, Stress
and Coping, Helm set out to identify how different people cope,
psychologically and behaviorally, with the stressor of a changing climate.

She and her collaborators surveyed 334 parents who had children
between the ages of 3 and 10 living with them. They were asked about
their general climate change beliefs, how stressed they feel about environmental issues, how they cope with that stress and how effective
they think consumers can be in combating climate change. They also were
asked how often they engage in certain behaviors, such as eating meat, traveling by air or making efforts to conserve energy and water. And
they were asked questions about their mental and overall health.

Based on the survey responses, the researchers identified two prevailing climate change coping profiles: adaptive approach coping and maladaptive avoidance coping.



========================================================================== About 70% of survey respondents belonged to the first group -- the
adaptive approach coping profile. They tended to have higher levels of environmental concern, and related stress, and believed more in consumer effectiveness. They expressed more wishful thinking and a desire to
problem solve, and were more likely to engage in pro-environmental
behaviors.

The remaining 30% were in the maladaptive avoidance coping group. They
were less likely than those in the first group to feel guilt or personal responsibility for climate change. They also had less wishful thinking
and were less likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviors or believe
that their actions would make a difference.

Helm and her collaborators wondered whether people in the adaptive
approach group -- who tend to feel more climate-related stress -- would
have worse mental health overall, since previous studies have linked environmental stress to negative mental health outcomes.

Surprisingly, Helm said, they found no differences between the two groups
with regard to general health, anxiety or depressive symptoms.

"Overall, we know that climate change-related anxiety is on the rise, and
that may be the case for both of these profiles," Helm said. "We didn't
look at climate anxiety specifically, but we looked at depressive and
anxiety symptoms in general; the two groups didn't differ in their
level of anxiety or mental health outcomes." There also were not
significant differences in the demographic makeup of the two groups when
it came to factors such as race, income, education level or employment
status. However, women were more likely to be in the adaptive approach
coping group, which is consistent with the findings of prior research,
Helm said.



========================================================================== "There's a whole host of literature suggesting that females have more environmental concern," she said.

The fact that the demographics of the two groups were so similar suggests
that targeting climate change-related messaging based on demographic information alone might not be the most effective strategy, Helm
said. While it might be tougher to do, determining a person's climate
change coping profile could be more useful for those attempting to
communicate about environmental issues and what people can do to make
a difference.

"If you think in terms of messaging about climate change or environmental problems, very often we look at social demographic targeting, and
according to our findings, that's not very useful because those two
profiles should probably be receiving different kinds of messaging," Helm
said. "Those who are already acting pro-environmentally need reinforcement
of that behavior, versus those who are in the maladaptive avoidance
coping profile who don't do much at all and need to be incentivized
to start doing something." Helm said future research should look at
whether the same two coping profiles exist in children and teenagers,
who may be experiencing greater anxiety about climate change.

"It seems from other data that climate change concern and climate-related anxiety are particularly high among young people," Helm said. "Our
study didn't cover the below-18 group, so understanding what's
going on in that demographic might be interesting, to see if
our findings hold there." special promotion Get a free digital
"Metabolism Myths" issue of New Scientist and discover the 7 things
we always get wrong about diet and exercise. Claim_yours_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Arizona. Original
written by Alexis Blue.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sabrina V. Helm, Xiaomin Li, Melissa A. Curran, Melissa A. Barnett.

Coping profiles in the context of global environmental threats:
a person- centered approach. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 2021;
1 DOI: 10.1080/ 10615806.2021.2004132 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220131153253.htm

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