Climate emotion profiles as moderators of ecological coping and depression in Ukraine

The climate crisis evokes diverse emotional responses; however, whether associations between ecological coping strategies and depressive symptoms vary across emotional profiles remains unclear. This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify climate emotion profiles among 306 Ukrainian adults and examined their moderating role in the coping–depression association. A five-profile solution was retained: Low Engagement, Moderate Engagement, High Engagement, Moderate Engagement–Elevated Distress, and High Engagement–Elevated Distress. Climate-related emotional engagement was heterogeneous, reflecting either active engagement or substantial emotional burden. The Low Engagement profile was characterized not by emotional absence but by low affective intensity accompanied by elevated contempt. Depression was associated with climate-related distress rather than emotional engagement alone. Problem-focused coping was most prevalent in the Elevated Distress profiles, whereas the Low Engagement profile showed the highest de-emphasizing coping and higher guilt-denial coping than all other profiles. Problem-focused coping was associated with lower depression in the Low Engagement profile but higher depression in the Moderate Engagement–Elevated Distress profile; de-emphasizing coping was positively associated with depressive symptoms only within this distressed group, whereas guilt-denial showed no association with depression across profiles. These findings underscore the value of person-centered approaches to understanding how coping–depression associations vary across emotional contexts.