How do people feel about climate change?

The Climate Change Anxiety Scale is a 22-question measure of the emotional response to climate change. The questions measure four variables including cognitive-emotional impairment, functional impairment, personal experience of climate change, and behavioral engagement. This survey can be used to explore relationships between climate change anxiety and variables like where people live, access to greenspace, or proenvironmental behaviors. Past research suggests that people who reported more cognitive-emotional impairment and functional impairment also reported engaging in more climate activism (Schwartz et al., 2023).

Resources:

• Clayton, S., & Karazsia, B. T. (2020). Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69, 101434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434
• Schwartz, S. E., Benoit, L., Clayton, S., Parnes, M. F., Swenson, L., & Lowe, S. R. (2023). Climate change anxiety and mental health: Environmental activism as buffer. Current Psychology, 42(20), 16708-16721.

Parameters

• Language (American English, Español, Français)

Disclaimer
Any languages that are currently offered besides English for this survey are not necessarily validated translations. This survey was translated using Google Translate and verified by members of the community.

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:

• CCAS_cognitive_emotional_impairment: Higher scores mean participants are experiencing more cognitive-emotional impairment in response to climate change, reflected in rumination, difficulty sleeping or concentrating, and nightmares or crying.
• CCAS_functional_impairment: Higher scores mean that concerns about climate change are interfering more with participants' ability to work or socialize.
• CCAS_personal_experience: Higher scores mean participants are more personally affected by climate change.
• CCAS_behavioral_engagement: Higher scores mean participants are engaging in more sustainable behavior.

Raw data: 22 questions broken into 4 variables (cognitive-emotional impairment, functional impairment, personal experience, and behavioral engagement). Each variable's score ranges from 1-5.

Calculation:
Subscores are determined by averaging the scores of the questions in each variable. The Likert scale ranges from 1 ("never") to 5 ("almost always"), so the averages of the scores will also range from 1-5.

• CCAS_cognitive_emotional_impairment: Average of questions 1-8
• CCAS_functional_impairment: Average of questions 9-13
• CCAS_personal_experience: Average of questions 14-16
• CCAS_behavioral_engagement: Average of questions 17-22