How to support young people coping with climate anxiety: insights from Yale Climate Connections

For young people around the world, climate change no longer seems a distant threat, but a present reality.

One recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet Planetary health surveyed 10,000 young people in 10 countries. A staggering 59% were very or extremely worried about climate change, and the vast majority (84%) were at least moderately worried.

Those who have experienced climate-related disasters suffer even more mental stress: Nearly one-third of disaster-affected people may experience negative mental health outcomes such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, or depression. Children, in particular, are bearing a significant emotional burden.

Given these realities, it is imperative that we equip our children with the mental and emotional tools to navigate this changing world. We must move beyond teaching abstract concepts and focus on practical, tangible solutions that empower young people and support their mental health and emotional resilience. Three promising strategies are emerging.

Teach children to design connected spaces

When faced with climate catastrophes, children become anxious about the fate of animals and plants as much as their own and their families. We already know that nature play and education enhance children’s self-confidence, self-regulation, and ability to care for the environment. Now some schools are involving children themselves in codesigning and creating spaces where they feel safe and connected to nature and their community. This hands-on approach not only educates but also provides a sense of agency and control.

In New York City, for example, some 220 schools, like the Pacific School (P.S. 38K) in Brooklyn, have taken part in the Green Community Schoolyards initiative, transforming asphalt playgrounds into more natural and vibrant spaces. The program integrates students in the design process, teaching them eco-design principles from stormwater management to gardening with native species – and then setting them loose to design their own spaces.

In Quito, Ecuador, a city that recently suffered unprecedented urban wildfires, one school encouraged students to respond through attainable actions, like cleaning the campus and participating in the forest restoration process by planting drought-resistant species. Carolina Ulloa, the school’s human development and academic director, explained that rather than teaching children to control nature, teachers want to nurture their sense of belonging to a community in which plants and animals can be cared for.

Teach nature-based solutions

Introducing children to practical, nature-based strategies for cooling the planet has been shown to transform abstract – and anxiety-provoking – problems into concrete actions.

For instance, initiatives like the Mycelium Youth Network empower low-income youth to combat climate change through engaging, hands-on educational programs that promote skills, environmental justice, and creative expression, effectively reducing feelings of helplessness.

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The group’s programs include urban gardening workshops, where youth learn to grow food sustainably, and climate tech courses that teach students to build solar-powered devices and air filtration systems. Students say the program improved their lives because they felt supported in thinking through solutions for their schools and their communities.

At Mine, the Quito school mentioned above, students of different ages plant permacultural orchards, help tend the seeds in a greenhouse, work with biomaterials and natural tints, learn about the source of the materials they use, their impact on the environment, and the economies they benefit. All this helps students develop greater feelings of self-efficacy and control in the face of climate anxiety.

Promote youth-led climate action initiatives

The “Plant-for-the-Planet” program, initiated by a 9-year-old in 2007, has now grown into a global movement in which children educate each other about climate change and take action by planting trees.

To date, the initiative has planted about 20 million trees worldwide and has empowered thousands of young climate justice ambassadors. These efforts highlight the powerful role young people can play in tackling global challenges. By empowering youth to act, these programs not only help combat climate change but also instill a sense of agency and hope, which may alleviate climate anxiety among young people.

To be sure, none of these solutions are the final answer to either climate change or children’s anxiety. But they do provide evidence-based approaches to reduce stress, while also offering the young tools that make them feel attuned to their environment and increase their ability to care for it.

At the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, world leaders placed unprecedented focus on the critical role of education in addressing climate change, recognizing that empowering youth is key to building resilience. We would add that it is central to guaranteeing their well-being and physical and mental health.

We owe it to our young people to prepare them not just intellectually, but emotionally and practically for the world they’re inheriting.

Ana María Durán Calisto is an Ecuadorian architect, urban planner, and scholar at the Yale School of Architecture. Cristiana Baloescu is a physician and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven.