Climate Change Related Depression, Anxiety and Stress Symptoms Perceived by Medical Students

Satisfied and Secured-An Integration of Self-Determination Theory and Attachment Theory in the Environmental Domain

While environmental motivation research has investigated several factors that can facilitate and promote the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors, questions remain on how individuals can be brought to change their behaviors and habits. In the current study, we draw on attachment theory and self-determination theory to better understand why motivational interventions meant to increase pro-environmental behaviors are ineffective for some individuals. Using a person-centered approach, our analysis uncovered four latent profiles characterized by varying levels of attachment insecurity and basic psychological need satisfaction. Further analysis suggests that these four profiles are associated with distinct motivational pathways in the environmental domain. Our results suggest that self-determined motivation is a direct predictor of pro-environmental behaviors solely for individuals from the secure attachment and high-need satisfaction profile. This association was not observed in individuals arising from insecure attachment and low-need satisfaction profiles, suggesting that the association between motivation and pro-environmental behaviors commonly reported in the literature might be moderated by one's social environment. Implications for motivation researchers and policymakers are discussed, such as the relevance of considering attachment when designing motivational interventions in the environmental domain.

Insight into the Environmental Health Consciousness of Medical Students Regarding the Perceived Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health

Climate change represents an unprecedented global public health crisis with extensive and profound implications. The Lancet Commission identified it as the foremost health challenge of the 21st century. In 2015, air pollution alone caused approximately 9 million premature deaths worldwide. Climate change also exacerbates extreme weather events, displacement, mental health disorders, disease vectors, food insecurity, and malnutrition, particularly impacting vulnerable developing countries like Pakistan due to its agricultural reliance, diverse topography, and limited resources. This study assesses Pakistani medical students' perceptions of climate change's health impacts. Conducted in February 2024, a cross-sectional survey of 632 students using a standardized questionnaire was employed via online Google Forms. The questionnaire was validated and an Exploratory Factor Analysis identified seven subscales of environmental health consciousness. The mean participant age was 21.17 years, with a balanced gender distribution. Students showed high environmental health consciousness (Mean = 35.6, SD = 5.2), with 88% attributing climate change to human activities and 89.1% anticipating serious future health impacts. Significant concerns included air quality-related illness (91%), water-availability illness (86%), healthcare disruption (85%), cold-related illness (83%), and flooding-related displacement (87%). Psychological impacts were acknowledged by 68%. Household income, age, and gender were significant predictors. These results highlight the need for integrating climate change and health education into medical curricula to prepare future healthcare providers.

The relationship between climate change and mental health: a systematic review of the association between eco-anxiety, psychological distress, and symptoms of major affective disorders

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The adverse impacts of climate change on mental health is a burgeoning area, although findings are inconsistent. The emerging concept of eco-anxiety represents distress in relation to climate change and may be related to mental health. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between eco-anxiety with validated mental health outcomes, specifically psychological distress and symptoms of major affective disorders.

DESIGN

Systematic review.

METHODS

EBSCO, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases were searched to February 2024 for studies of adult samples quantifying eco-anxiety (exposure, i.e. fear, worry or anxiety in relation to climate change) and symptoms of psychological distress and major affective disorders (outcomes), as assessed by validated measures.

RESULTS

Full text review of 83 studies was performed, and k = 35 studies were included in the review (N = 45 667, 61% female, Mage 31.2 years). Consistently, eco-anxiety showed small to large positive correlations with mental health outcomes of psychological distress, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and stress symptoms. However, results regarding post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and pathological worry were mixed. Stronger associations were observed where eco-anxiety was operationalised as 'anxiety' rather than 'worry'.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings underscore that eco-anxiety is related to psychological burden. Greater consideration of eco-anxiety in assessment and treatment is needed in clinical practice and further policy development is warranted at the intersection of climate and health to address the mental health challenges posed by climate change.

Depressive Symptoms Among Higher Education Students in Germany-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objectives

Higher education students in Germany are vulnerable to depressive symptoms. Despite ample evidence, no comprehensive review has recently been conducted. Thus, our systematic review and meta-analysis aims at describing the extent to which students are affected by depressive symptoms.

Methods

We searched three databases for articles reporting the prevalence rates of depressiveness among students in Germany published between 2002 and 2023. Pooled prevalence rates were calculated using random effects models, both for the overall sample and for subgroups categorized by gender, study setting, assessment instrument, and whether the study was conducted before or during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results

The search yielded 992 records. After screening, 60 articles remained for data extraction. About one out of five students (21.1%) exhibits depressive symptoms. Pooled prevalence rates differ between subgroups, with higher rates during the COVID-19 pandemic than before (30.6% versus 18.0%) and with females being more affected than their male counterparts (29.0% versus 23.1%).

Conclusion

This review underlines the urgency with which the mental health of students should be addressed at the (higher educational) policy level.

Clinical Trial Registration: PROPSPERO, Identifier CRD42022384066.

Exploring the relationship between nursing students' knowledge and attitudes towards climate change and their psychological distress: a cross-national investigation

BACKGROUND

Climate change poses a worldwide challenge with anticipated exacerbation in the future, resulting in irreversible consequences. Nursing students may be vulnerable to experiencing psychological effects associated with climate change.

AIM

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between nursing students' knowledge and attitudes toward climate change and their psychological distress.

METHOD

This descriptive cross-sectional study recruited 377 nursing students from three universities located in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt in the Middle East. Data collection was conducted using scales for assessing nursing students' knowledge and attitudes towards climate change and their psychological distress. Correlations were assessed and multiple regression analysis was conducted to explore the predictors of students' psychological distress.

RESULTS

The current study showed that knowledge regarding climate change significantly and positively correlated to the attitude toward climate change (r = 0.213), then again, the score of psychological distress significantly and negatively correlated to the score of students' knowledge and attitude regarding climate change (r = - 0.182 and - 0.110 respectively). Regression analyses showed that academic achievement had the strongest positive impact on students' psychological distress, while knowledge regarding climate change and attitude toward climate change had negative impacts (β = 0.381, β=-0.205, and β=-0.045 respectively). Moreover, knowledge and attitude regarding climate change were found to be significant predictors of students' psychological distress, collectively accounting for 18.2% of the observed variance.

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATION FOR FUTURE PRACTICE

The findings highlight the importance of incorporating climate change into nursing education programs. By enhancing nursing students' knowledge and attitudes towards climate change, there is potential to reduce their psychological distress. This study underscores the need for curriculum reforms that integrate climate change topics, aiming to foster a well-informed and resilient future nursing workforce.

Climate change and human health: Last call to arms for us

Climate change, now the foremost global health hazard, poses multifaceted challenges to human health. This editorial elucidates the extensive impact of climate change on health, emphasising the increasing burden of diseases and the exacerbation of health disparities. It highlights the critical role of the healthcare sector, particularly anaesthesia, in both contributing to and mitigating climate change. It is a call to action for the medical community to recognise and respond to the health challenges posed by climate change.

Climate change anxiety, fear, and intention to act

Climate change anxiety (CCA) is an emerging yet not clearly defined construct. Here, we examine the relationship between CCA and climate change-related fear in response to messages differently framing uncertainty and anticipation concerning climate change, exploring how the former differs from general anxiety measures. To this purpose, young and healthy volunteers were assigned to three different framing conditions. Their emotional responses as well as eco-emotions and beliefs about climate change were collected. By employing a Bayesian approach, we found that framing the consequences of climate change effectively induces heightened fear and that CCA strongly predicted fear levels, while general anxiety measures did not. Overall, these results reflect CCA's unique and specific nature in influencing climate change-related fear. Interestingly, we found fear to predict intention scores only following the framings that did not effectively induce action intentions, consistent with prior findings on fear without efficacy framing. Instead, reading about the negative consequences motivated action the most. Following this framing, we found that eco-anger, instead of fear, consistently predicted intentions to engage in climate action. These results emphasize the complex interplay between CCA, eco-emotions, efficacy, and behavioral engagement.

[Sense of coherence in breastfeeding women: A scoping review]

BACKGROUND

The establishment of breastfeeding may sometimes be stressful. We aimed to analyze the sense of coherence in lactating women to determine the general resistance resources during lactation and the professional interventions that promote a high sense of coherence.

METHODS

A search of studies in English, Spanish, or Portuguese on lactating women's sense of coherence was carried out in PubMed, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, and CINAH databases published between May and November 2022. Study quality and risk of bias were examined according to ICROMS and STROBE criteria.

RESULTS

We identified 316 studies, of which eight -all of adequate quality- were included, three qualitative and five quantitative. A high level of maternal sense of coherence was related to longer duration, self-efficacy, attachment, and enjoyment of the breastfeeding experience. The main general resistance resources were to receive social support, particularly from partners, mothers, and health professionals. The interventions that favored the sense of coherence were mainly those related to a close, empathic, personalized, comprehensive, and family-centered professional support.

CONCLUSIONS

The detection of the level of sense of coherence in lactating mothers may help identify women with a higher risk of weaning and establish professional intervention strategies that improve the breastfeeding experience.

The effects of climate change awareness on mental health: Comparison of climate anxiety and hopelessness levels in Turkish youth

BACKGROUND

Climate anxiety, one of the negative emotions created by climate change, is particularly prevalent among climate activists and young individuals who hold a more serious concern for environmental issues.

AIM

This study aims to determine the effects of climate change awareness on the mental health of young people in Turkey.

METHODS

Designed as a descriptive and two-group comparative study, the target population of this study comprises young individuals aged 15 to 24 who are climate activists and those who are not. The study data was collected through e-questionnaires administered between March 15 and May 10, 2023, using a demographic characteristics form, a climate change anxiety scale and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. The study was completed with a total of 306 participants, including 103 young individuals who are climate activists and 203 young individuals who are not climate activists.

RESULTS

We determined that young individuals who are climate activists have a high level of climate change anxiety, while those who are not climate activists have a moderate level of climate change anxiety. We found that the levels of hopelessness in both groups are at a mild level. Additionally, within the group of climate activists, we observed that individuals with a higher level of knowledge about climate change tend to exhibit greater levels of hopelessness.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified that as awareness and knowledge about climate change increase, climate change anxiety, and hopelessness also increase. There is a need for studies to determine youth-specific mental health interventions to address mental health issues related to climate change awareness.

Scoping review of climate change and mental health in Germany - Direct and indirect impacts, vulnerable groups, resilience factors

Background

Climate change is a major threat to human health and has direct and indirect impacts on the human psyche.

Methods

To assess the state of knowledge on the impact of climate change on mental health in Germany, a scoping review was conducted for the focus topics extreme weather events, temperature increase, intra-psychological processing, sociological aspects, and resilience factors. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria of the searches in the databases Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, PubPsych, PubMed, and PsychInfo. The majority of the studies looked at correlative relationships in a cross-sectional design.

Results

There are indications of an accumulation of psychiatric disorders after extreme weather events; in addition, the risk of suicide increases with higher temperatures and it appears there is an increase in aggressive behaviour. The majority of people surveyed in Germany report concerns about the consequences of climate change, although these currently rarely lead to clinically significant impairments in mental health.

Conclusions

Overall, the evidence for Germany must be classified as insufficient. In addition to the absolute priority of climate protection (mitigation) by reducing emissions, there is a particular need for additional research with a focus on vulnerable groups and possibilities for prevention and adaptation.