Maria Ojala

Hope and climate change: the importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people

Although many young people think climate change is an important societal issue, studies indicate that pessimism is quite common. Finding ways to instill hope could therefore be seen as vital. However, is hope positively related to engagement or is it only a sign of illusory optimism? The aim of the study was to explore if hope concerning climate change has a significant relation to pro-environmental behavior as well as an impact on behavior when controlling for already well-known predictors such as values, social influence, knowledge, and gender. Two questionnaire studies were performed, one with a group of Swedish teenagers (n = 723) and one with a group of Swedish young adults (n = 381). ‘Constructive’ hope had a unique positive influence on pro-environmental behavior. Hope based on denial, however, was negatively correlated with pro-environmental behavior in the two samples and was a significant negative predictor in the teenage group. The conclusion is that hope is not only a pleasant feeling but could also work as a motivational force, if one controls for denial. Implications for education concerning sustainable development are discussed.

Recycling and Ambivalence: Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses of Household Recycling among Young Adults.

Theories about ambivalence, as well as quantitative and qualitative empirical approaches, are applied to obtain an understanding of recycling among young adults. A questionnaire was mailed to 422 Swedish young people. Regression analyses showed that a mix of negative emotions (worry) and positive emotions (hope and joy) about the environmental problems was positively related to recycling. The opposite pattern was found for attitudinal ambivalence toward recycling. Thereafter, semistructured interviews were performed. In a group of reluctant recyclers, the ambivalent attitudes consisted of views that recycling is something beneficial for the environment and is a civic duty. On the other hand, they wanted more information, were unable to integrate youthful ideals about living in an environmentally friendly way with the everyday life of young adulthood, and felt low self-efficacy. In addition, strategies to activate positive emotions alongside a high degree of environmental worry were explored in a group who recycle regularly.

Hope in the face of climate change : Associations with environmental engagement and student perceptions of teachers’ emotion communication style and future orientation

Is hope concerning climate change related to environmental engagement, or is it rather associated with unrealistic optimism and inactivity? This study on Swedish high school students identified two kinds of hope: constructive hope and hope based on denial. Constructive hope was positively associated with engagement and a perception that teachers respect students’ negative emotions concerning societal issues and have a future-oriented, positive, and solution-oriented communication style. Students who felt hope based on denial instead were less inclined to behave pro-environmentally and perceived their teachers as not taking their emotions seriously and as communicating in a pessimistic way. Boys perceived their teachers as less accepting of negative emotions, which explained why they felt more hope based on denial than girls. Practical implications of these findings are discussed.

What Lies Beneath the Surface? A Case Study of Citizens' Moral Reasoning with Regard to Biodiversity

This paper focuses on a Swedish case where a biological insecticide has been used to fight mosquitoes in order to reduce the nuisance to humans. The case concerns conflicting values regarding environmental protection. Peoples quality of life in the summers is placed in opposition to long-term risks to biodiversity. On the surface, the affected lay-population is one-sidedly positive about the intervention. However, interviews with citizens revealed a more complex picture, where the majority also touched upon value conflicts. At the same time, different psychological mechanisms for handling these dilemmas hindered more critical and doubtful views from being included in societal deliberations concerning the intervention. By way of conclusion, we argue that it is important to create deliberative arrangements that acknowledge the emotional and contradictory side of human nature and that encourage people to dare to voice standpoints that may be seen as uncomfortable or inconsistent.

Climate change skepticism among adolescents

Young people relate to one of the most serious social problems, global climate change, in different ways. This study focuses on adolescents (Time 1: mean age = 16.6 years) who de-emphasize the seriousness of this problem. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to investigate what factors predict climate skepticism cross-sectionally and what factors predict climate skepticism one year later. Two waves of data were collected (Time 1: n = 870; Time 2: n = 684). Factors important for explaining skepticism among adults (values, knowledge, conservative political orientation, gender, media use), a cluster of variables related to societal powerlessness (distrust, disinterest in societal issues, low environmental efficacy, low tolerance toward immigrants), and descriptive social norms (social influence from parents and peers) were included in the study. With the exception of media use in cross-sectional analyses, and of media use and a conservative political orientation in bivariate longitudinal analyses, all of these factors were significantly associated with skepticism. However, only perceiving parents as having climate skeptical attitudes and low tolerance toward immigrants predicted an increase in climate change skepticism over the one-year period. Results are discussed in relation to earlier studies about climate change skepticism and socialization theories. Implications for climate change education are also discussed.

Emotional Awareness: On the Importance of Including Emotional Aspects in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD):

Pluralistic approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) that acknowledge complexity, value conflicts and uncertainty in learning about sustainable development have become popular in recent years. In implementing these, educational researchers have been inspired by deliberative communication models. Deliberative approaches can, however, be criticized for lacking sufficient insight into how emotions influence deliberation and learning. The first aim of this article is thus to review theories and earlier research, mainly in psychology, that demonstrate the importance of taking emotional aspects seriously in ESD. The second aim is to show that since emotions sometimes can be difficult to bear, it is also important to be aware of emotion regulation strategies in order to promote pluralistic learning. The third aim is to discuss practical implications for ESD, with an emphasis on the importance of allowing articulation of emotional reactions and the need to consider emotion regulation strategies at individual, group and cultural levels.

Hope and grief in the anthropocene: re-conceptualising human-nature relations

Review of: Hope and grief in the Anthropocene : Re-conceptualising human-nature relations by Lesley Head

Young People’s Coping Strategies Concerning Climate Change: Relations to Perceived Communication With Parents and Friends and Proenvironmental Behavior

Taking its departure in the transactional theory of coping and socialization theories, this questionnaire study investigates how coping with climate change among late adolescents (N = 705) relates to proenvironmental behavior and communication with significant others about societal problems. Deemphasizing the problem was negatively associated with proenvironmental behavior, whereas problem-focused and meaning-focused coping were positively associated with proenvironmental behavior. Two communication patterns with fathers, mothers, and friends were identified: one solution oriented and supportive, and one dismissive and doom-and-gloom oriented. The positive patterns correlated positively with problem-focused and meaning-focused coping, whereas the negative patterns correlated positively with deemphasizing. Communication with fathers was particularly important in explaining deemphasizing and problem-focused coping. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that coping mediates the effects of communication patterns on behavior, whereas problem-focused coping mediates the influence of other coping strategies on behavior. The study demonstrates the importance of considering coping as a factor in the socialization of proenvironmental behavior.

Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community: the role of place identity, social norms, environmental concern and ecocentric values in public risk perception

ABSTRACT There is a risk that climate change will cause an increase of mosquito populations in Europe. Due to their nuisance to humans, there are demands to combat mosquitoes, mainly through spraying. These interventions, however, are expensive and associated with uncertainties concerning effects on biodiversity. This poses a dilemma for policy-makers, which makes it important to gain knowledge on what people’s nuisance comprises. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore what factors are associated with this risk perception of mosquitoes. Theories about place identity, social norms, environmental concern and values were used to identify relevant factors. A questionnaire was distributed to 317 persons in a Swedish community where mosquitoes have increased radically. The items concerning risk perception fell out as a unidimensional scale in a principal component analysis and the internal consistency of the scale was good. Risk perception was positively related to place identity, descriptive social norms, and self-oriented environmental concern and negatively related to ecocentric values. The most important predictor was descriptive social norms, but the other factors and gender also contributed uniquely in explaining risk perception. Results are discussed in relation to the theory of social amplification of risks.