Climate anxiety is associated with increasing distress and diminishing returns in pro-environmental behaviours: A cross-sectional study of Australian youth

Growing evidence points to significant positive relationships between climate anxiety and psychological distress; however, there is also evidence that climate anxiety is associated with much-needed climate action. We aimed to assess whether there is a ‘Goldilocks zone’ of climate anxiety wherein climate action is maximised at the lowest levels of psychological distress—a critical knowledge gap in youth, who report the greatest climate anxiety of any age group. In a large sample of Australian youth (n = 869), we investigated the relationships amongst climate anxiety, individual and collective pro-environmental behaviours, and psychological distress. A series of analyses of variance showed large main effects between climate anxiety quintiles on measures of both individual and collective pro-environmental behaviours. Upper climate anxiety quintiles showed significantly higher psychological distress; the highest climate anxiety quintile was at 9- to 12-fold higher odds for moderate (i.e., clinically significant) depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Our curve-fitting analysis revealed better fit for non-linear models, with s-curves having the lowest error. Broadly, the results could not identify a ‘Goldilocks zone.’ Instead, we observed that at higher levels of climate anxiety, there were consistently higher levels of distress but diminishing returns in pro-environmental behaviours, both individual and collective. We urge caution in promoting climate anxiety as a necessary motivating factor for climate action, as actual action tapers off while psychological distress continues to increase at higher levels of climate anxiety.