New research provides evidence that climate change anxiety is associated with mental health issues in expectant mothers. The study, integrating both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, reveals how concerns over the future impacts of climate change weigh heavily on pregnant women, contributing to increased levels of prenatal worry and depression. The findings have been published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders.
Historically, research on climate change’s health impacts predominantly concentrated on physical health. However, a growing body of evidence is beginning to highlight the mental health ramifications. This shift in focus stems from an increasing awareness of the psychological strain caused by climate-related events.
The team of scientists behind this study sought to better understand the psychological phenomena known as climate change anxiety. This term describes the anticipatory anxiety and existential fear arising from the perceived threat of climate change, often referred to as “the chronic fear of environmental doom.”
“I got interested in this topic after seeing all of the media reports of people who had elected not to have children because of their concerns about climate change. It made me wonder — how might this affect people who have already committed to having a child but who have not actually delivered that child yet?” explained study author Amy D. Lykins, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of New England.
“The antenatal period can be very intense mentally and physically anyway, as people can have a wide variety of experiences during pregnancy, from relatively straightforward and easy pregnancies to extremely complicated, stressful ones. I was curious about whether and how climate change anxiety might be playing a role in these anxieties and moods during this period.”
The study’s sample consisted of 103 expectant women, with ages ranging from 19 to 45 years, recruited through various pregnancy and expectant parent social media networking sites. Participants completed assessments online, using the Qualtrics platform, which ensured a user-friendly and accessible interface. The order of the questionnaires was randomized to avoid any potential bias in responses.
A key part of the study was the deployment of established psychometric scales to quantify the levels of prenatal depression, worry, and climate change anxiety. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to assess prenatal depression. This 10-item self-report measure is a widely recognized tool for evaluating depressive symptoms, particularly in the context of pregnancy and postpartum periods.
The Cambridge Worry Scale (CWS), consisting of 17 items, measured the extent and content of worries during pregnancy. This tool is effective in identifying specific areas of concern among expectant mothers, such as health, financial stability, and relationship dynamics.
To specifically gauge climate change anxiety, a measure developed by Clayton and Karazsia was used. This 22-item scale, focusing on cognitive-emotional and functional impairments, is a novel tool designed to understand how thoughts and feelings about climate change impact daily functioning and mental health (e.g., “Thinking about climate change makes it difficult for me to concentrate”).
In addition to these quantitative measures, the study included open-ended questions to capture a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the participants’ concerns and feelings about climate change and its impact on their future children. These questions were designed to elicit personal reflections and insights, providing a qualitative dimension to the research.
The researchers found that climate change anxiety significantly predicted the variance in prenatal depression scores. This implies that worries and fears about the impact of climate change not only contribute to general anxiety but also play a substantial role in exacerbating depressive symptoms during pregnancy.
Similarly, climate change anxiety was linked to higher levels of prenatal worry. The participants who reported higher levels of anxiety related to climate change also tended to experience greater concerns about various aspects of their pregnancy and the future well-being of their children. This suggests that climate change anxiety adds a significant burden to the usual stresses of pregnancy, potentially heightening overall anxiety levels in expectant mothers.
The responses to the open-ended questions in the study highlighted a deep-seated concern among participants about the future world their children would inhabit. Many expressed worries about deteriorating environmental conditions, including air quality, increased frequency of natural disasters, and food security. These concerns reflect a broader existential anxiety about the long-term sustainability of a healthy and safe environment for future generations.
“We found that climate change anxiety significantly contributed to greater endorsement of antenatal worry and depression symptoms,” Lykins told PsyPost. “Our participants expressed a wide variety of concerns about their future (and existing) children’s health and well-being, from worry about air quality, to food/water insecurity and exposure to extreme weather events. The findings suggest that climate change anxiety is an additional potential stressor during the antenatal period and may be worth considering as part of routine antenatal healthcare.”
Another notable aspect of the findings was related to psychological distance — the perceived closeness or remoteness of the impacts of climate change. The study found that while a greater perceived psychological distance from climate change impacts was linked to lower levels of climate change anxiety, it did not significantly influence antenatal depression or worry.
“We expected that perceived distance to climate change — which can serve to manage or compartmentalize anxiety about climate change — would mitigate the relationship between climate change anxiety and antenatal distress,” Lykins said. “However, whether a person felt that the impacts of climate change was closer to or farther away from their own personal experiences and future made no difference in that relationship.”
Interestingly, the study found no significant differences in climate change anxiety between first-time expectant mothers and those who already had children. This suggests that the concerns and fears related to climate change are pervasive and impact expectant mothers regardless of their prior parenting experience.
“We also thought that, based on previous research, child number would mitigate the relationship between climate change anxiety and antenatal distress, with people who were pregnant with their first child experiencing more distress than those who had already committed one or more offspring to the future feeling less of an impact of that decision,” Lykins told PsyPost. “Again, this made no difference, which we also found unexpected. These lack of results strengthen the argument for that connection between higher climate change anxiety contributing to higher antenatal distress, but the lack of mitigating factors was surprising.”
While the study offers novel insights, it is not without limitations. Its focus exclusively on women and reliance on self-reported measures suggests a need for broader, more inclusive research. Future studies might consider involving diverse populations and incorporating clinically verified mental health diagnoses.
“As this is the first study that found this relationship, more research should be done to confirm the findings,” Lykins said. “Should the results be replicated, it’s worth considering how these findings may inform antenatal healthcare to provide support to pregnant people if they are struggling. One caveat might be that all of our measures were self-report (though clinically validated) and our participants were sourced from online sites (e.g., Facebook) targeting expectant parents. Whether people who engage with those kinds of sites are representative of the average pregnant person, we’re not really sure.”
“On the other hand, we did not recruit from sites targeting eco-anxiety or climate change anxiety, so in that sense, the findings likely are more robust in terms of the experience of climate change anxiety (i.e., we did not explicitly target people who were likely to be experiencing higher climate change anxiety).”
“Another caveat is that we did not differentiate between pregnant individuals and their partners in the survey,” Lykins explained. “So, our participants may have been the female partners of the pregnant person, or the pregnant person themselves — we can’t really be sure (though I’d say more likely the latter). Given partners can experience antenatal distress too, it may not really matter, but it is a minor limitation to the study.”
The study, “Climate change anxiety positively predicts antenatal distress in expectant female parents“, was authored by Amy D. Lykins, Mary Bonich, Cassandra Sundaraja, and Suzanne Cosh.
