How climate anxiety affects pro-environmental behaviors among people who have experienced climate disasters

As climate change accelerates, the occurrence of natural disasters and their direct and indirect effects continue to increase. Frequent exposure to a sense of crisis can lead to anxiety, which can affect not only mental health, but also personal behavior. This study conducted an online survey of 2,000 Korean adults aged 19 ~ 65 years to determine if climate-change-related disaster experience was associated with an individual’s climate anxiety and pro-environmental behaviors. The results showed that 48.9% of respondents had experienced a disaster that had a significant impact on their lives, and their mean score on the Climate Change Anxiety Scale was 2.09 of 5, which was higher than the scores of climate-sensitive groups from previous studies in Korea. However, climate anxiety among the disaster-experienced respondents significantly supported pro-environmental behaviors as a mediating factor, with cognitive climate anxiety having a particularly strong effect on these behaviors. This suggested that climate anxiety can act in a positive way to promote concrete actions to adapt to climate change. People who had experienced disasters need active health protection and care because they are more likely to experience negative impacts of climate anxiety and to be vulnerable to post-traumatic physical and mental risks. As disaster experiences and subsequent reactions can be triggers for climate actions, it is necessary to find ways to provide them with psychological first aid and strengthen their emotional resilience.