A psychological network approach to engagement with climate change in Dutch youth

Abstract

Whether youths engage with climate change is determined by a variety of cognitive, emotional and behavioral constructs, such as their interest in the topic, perceived distance to climate change, their perceived self-efficacy concerning climate change mitigation as well as (self-reported) pro-environmental behavior. In the current study, we employed a psychometric network approach to map the relationships between psychological climate change engagement constructs of 436 Dutch youth (16- to 24-year-olds), including a measure of actual behavioral engagement (information seeking). Communities of positively related constructs formed within the network — meaning that someone experiencing higher levels of self-efficacy is also more hopeful in the light of climate change. Climate change knowledge only played a peripheral role in the network. Self-efficacy was directly linked with information seeking and was the most central (i.e., influential) construct, linking the different communities. This makes self-efficacy a potential target for interventions aimed at stimulating behavioral climate change engagement.