Population Levels of Climate Change Fear in the United States

Document pages: 11 pages

Abstract: There is increasing evidence that climate change, like other natural disasters has the potential for significant human health impacts, including mental health. Fear as a psychological construct concerning climate change is not well understood. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted, targeting a demographically representative sample of Americans (n = 546) in terms of ethnicity, age, and gender. Survey questions included demographic information and global questions regarding self-rated anxiety and fear of climate change. Ordinal logistic models were created to determine which demographic factors were most predictive of climate change fear in the US population. Over half of the study sample (50.9 ) indicated being moderately or very afraid of climate change. In the end, only three factors remained significant (p