Young or emerging adulthood, the distinct period from age 18 to approximately ages 25–29, is a pivotal time of life transition when complex psychological, neurological, and cognitive factors come together to influence a person’s development. Within this context, young adults are forming their identities and making decisions about their roles in life–for example, what to do in their work or studies, whether to become a parent, where to live, and what their connections and responsibilities are to others and to the broader society.

There are many positive aspects of this stage of life, but emerging adults worldwide are also susceptible to systemic and societal problems, including climate change, racism, disease outbreaks, political instability, socioeconomic inequality, and the like. In 2023, 45% of 18-25 year-olds in the United States reported that their mental health was being harmed by a general “sense that things are falling apart”. In a 2025 survey by the Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health, 67% of Gen Z young adults (ages 18–25) globally reported that they feel overwhelmed by news and events, with only 46% feeling empowered to have a role in the future of their country.

Young adults also experience moral injury in relation to climate change—the trauma, in this case, caused by governments and political institutions failing to act to halt global warming. Indeed, the breakdown of the social contract—the consent of people to be governed in exchange for benefits and protections by government—has led to calls for a new “eco-social contract.” The ongoing, relentless nature of climate change—often framed as pre-traumatic stress—additionally means that young adults live with anticipating the climate trauma ahead. For many, the climate crisis already requires a focus on issues of survival. And in general, the threatened and actual consequences of climate change add a substantial amount of uncertainty to young adults’ lives, not only in the present but as they are considering choices for their futures.

• In the first survey to look at climate emotions in young people around the world, 68% of 16-25 year-olds in 10 countries said they felt sad about climate change, and the same percentage felt afraid. 57% felt powerless and 65% believed that governments around the world are failing young people. Respondents who lived in the Global South felt worse, with 80% of those from India, 86% from Brazil, and 92% from the Philippines frightened about the future, compared to 75% overall.
• Participants in a large-scale survey in the U.S. also indicated high levels of negative climate emotions and beliefs: 85% were at least moderately worried about climate change and its impacts, and 66% believed that climate change will make their lives worse. Distress was found across the political spectrum, and distress increased with exposure to more types of severe weather events.
• In another survey of 22,000 U.S. residents, Gen Z and millennials evidenced less hope and increased worry, anger, and guilt about climate change than older generations.

When psychological resources exist to cope, emotions like anger and anxiety can be beneficial and motivating, and worry can lead to constructive problem solving. But young adults’ well-being can be negatively affected as well.

• A study of people in 32 countries found that climate anxiety was related to poorer mental well-being in all but one country.
• After Australia’s catastrophic Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020, young adults who had direct exposure to the bushfires had lower psychological resilience, increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress, and more climate-related distress compared to those who weren’t directly exposed.
• Almost half of young adults in the U.S. cite stress from climate change as an influence on their daily lives.
• In a study examining climate change emotions and mental health in 25 countries, negative climate emotions were associated with worse self-reported mental health in 84% of the countries.

• Young adults living in areas of environmental destruction, sometimes called sacrifice zones, or in other communities with high rates of pollution, are exposed to particulate pollutants from the processing and burning of fossil fuels and ground-level ozone (an air pollutant) increased by global warming. Ozone is associated with psychological distress, and particulates with increased anxiety.
• Indigenous young adults belong to some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Forty-three percent of environmental defenders killed in 2023 were Indigenous Peoples. Climate change threatens central parts of psychological wellbeing for Indigenous Peoples and disrupts attachment to place, a connection critical for Indigenous mental health.
• Young adults and others in the Global South experience more climate harms than people in the wealthier countries of the Global North, despite contributing fewer emissions toward global warming. For example, young people in southern Madagascar experience high levels of worry about climate change due to climate change-related disruptions in their schooling and activities, their uncertainty and feelings of powerlessness about the future, and famine and water scarcity. Climate change anxiety in Gen Z Filipinos affects overall mental health and is associated with broader psychological distress.
• Young adult graduate students and researchers in environmental sciences and related fields are at higher risk for climate distress and secondary trauma due to their knowledge about and ongoing exposure to climate change realities. In the U.S., recent losses of jobs and funding have added stress as well.

1. The best way to improve climate mental health is to rapidly halt human-caused global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels so that young adults and others can have healthy, non-threatening futures. To that end, urgent and effective global governmental, institutional, and intergovernmental action–and public pressure–is critical to systemically address climate change.

2. Providing opportunities for young adults to talk about their climate emotions and beliefs can help them feel less alone. Climate cafes and similar groups, which are springing up on college campuses, online, and in cities around the world (see below), can often provide this outlet. Climate-aware therapy is a growing movement among mental health professionals who offer psychotherapy for climate distress, and there are online resources for young people as well.

3. Young activists and environmental human-rights defenders around the world are standing up in the face of injustice, often at their own risk. They should be joined and protected in person and through active support of youth-led initiatives and movements, fossil-fuel divestment action by college students, and youth-led climate lawsuits around the world (see below). Young adults’ ideas should be noticed and supported at work as well: 54% of Gen Z employees around the world say they are pressuring their employers to take climate action.

4. Most of what we know about climate anxiety and other emotions comes from research that’s been done in and about the wealthier Western countries of the Global North. More research from non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) countries is crucial so that the experiences of young adults and others in these countries can be better understood.

5. Diffey, Wright, Uchendo, and other young adults emphasize the importance of including young people’s voices in the policy and research spheres, and of listening to their feelings and experiences. Others echo that recommendation for young adults to be collaborators in research to develop, study, and implement interventions for building resilience.

6. Climate education is powerful, giving young adults the knowledge and ability to participate and lead in this area so central to their futures. Training young adults to implement pro-environmental projects in their communities or to develop and use their skills to lead or work in climate policy, advocacy, and other areas provides opportunities to build a sense of individual and collective competence and effectiveness. Vocational schools and academic institutions can help them get a foothold by teaching them skills and offering support for choosing a career in climate. Globally, there is growing leadership programming for young adults as well (see below). Of note, young adults benefit when educators are attuned to the emotions stirred up for young adults when learning about climate change.

7. Adults who have more social and other resources can decrease the burden of intergenerational injustice and climate mental health impacts on younger generations by taking collective climate action themselves and by using their comparatively greater societal power to drive change. There are a number of well-regarded climate action organizations in which the global public can get involved (see below). Talking across generations is important as well, and elders in particular may serve as a source of climate wisdom.

8. Social support is a critical psychological buffer, and young adults should not be expected to carry the burden of climate change alone. It’s important for parents, educators, mental health professionals, and others to provide social support, not only to help young adults in current times, but to facilitate lifespan resilience in the face of climate change.

• The widespread use of social media among young adults can both cause climate distress and vicarious trauma and provide exposure to positive news and community connection. Understanding and being aware of social media intake is thus a useful component of addressing climate anxiety. In one study of 18-24 year-old Australians, viewing negative social media about climate change was connected to feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and overwhelm, as well as guilt for those who weren’t able to be involved in activism, but were being encouraged to do so. On the plus side, social media about people taking climate action and caring for the environment affected their feelings positively. Humorous memes are another way that some young adults are using social media in attempting to cope with the climate and other crises.

• Taking climate action helps people believe in their capabilities to make a difference, helps them feel a sense of control, and can decrease anxiety. Joining with others in collective action also contributes to social support, a psychological buffer. Climate anxiety is linked to pro-environmental action in general, though it is linked specifically to protesting only in wealthier, individualized countries and not in the Global South, where there are more financial and political barriers to action. Gen Z and Millennial young adults are more involved in climate activism than older generations, with 30% of 18–29 year-olds donating money, volunteering, contacting an elected official, and/or attending a protest or rally in 2022-2023. Importantly, youth activism has moral power and is making a difference in changing global norms around climate change.

• Online climate discussion groups for young people: Climate Cafes at Force of Nature; Youth Climate Circles at One Resilient Earth; and the Youth Support Space of Climate Psychology Alliance-UK
• Youth-led movements: Fridays for Future; Sunrise Movement
• Youth-led climate litigation support: International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Climate Change; Our Children’s Trust
• Youth leadership development and education: Global Youth Climate Training Programme (Global); Youth Leadership Development Programme (Nigeria); Youth Climate Corps in British Columbia (B.C., Canada); Climate Cardinals (Global); Force of Nature (Global). Under the U.N. umbrella: Climate Change Virtual School (Africa) and the Academy for Global Youth Leadership Empowerment (Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East-North Africa).
• Collective climate action: Third Act (for ages 60+); Climate Reality Project; Extinction Rebellion; Citizens’ Climate Lobby;, and 350.org

Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future by Jade Sasser, published in 2024 by University of California Press.

Climate Change and Youth Mental Health: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Elizabeth Haase and Kelsey Hudson, published in 2024 by Cambridge University Press.

The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators: How To Teach in a Burning World, by Jennifer Atkinson and Sarah Jaquette Ray, published in 2024 by University of California Press.

A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet, by Sarah Jaquette Ray, published in 2020 by University of California Press.

Generation Dread, by Britt Wray, published in 2022 by Penguin Random House.

Surviving Climate Anxiety: A Guide to Coping, Healing, and Thriving, by Thomas Doherty, published in 2025 by Hachette Books.

Deciding to Have a Baby Amid the Climate Crisis: Whatever You’re Feeling, You’re Not Alone, published by CBC Radio-Canada on November 24, 2022, by Britt Wray.

Helping Youth Move from Climate Anxiety to Climate Action, published in Monitor on Psychology in June 2025 by Myriam Vidal Valero.

How Does Climate Change Affect Mental Health?, published by American Psychological Association on February 7, 2023, by Amy Novotney.

How Gen Z Are Taking on Eco-Anxiety, published in Global Climate & Health Alliance.

Memes and War: Why People Turn to Jokes in Times of Crisis, published in Teen Vogue on March 3, 2022, by Charlotte Colombo.

Millions Suffering in Deadly Pollution ‘Sacrifice Zones,’ Warns UN Expert, published in The Guardian on March 10, 2022, by Damien Gayle.

Our Children Face “Pretraumatic Stress” from Worries About Climate Change, published in BMJ Opinion on November 19, 2020, by Lise Van Susteren.

Please Stop Saying My Generation Will Save the World, published in Unthinkable on June 29, 2023, by Unthinkable and Isabelle Drury.

Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood. https://www.ssea.org

So Much for Saving the Planet: Climate Careers Evaporate for the Class of 2025, published in The Nation on May 29, 2025, by Lawrence Lanahan.

Urgent Need to Protect Young Climate Activists, published in UNDP Climate Promise on June 13, 2022, by Christophe Bahuet and AnnaMaria Oltorp.

Young Climate Activists and the Battle to Avert Catastrophe, published in AlJazeera on November 3, 2021, by Ruairi Casey.

2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey: Living and Working with Purpose in a Transforming World, published by Deloitte in 2024.

Ballew, M., Verner, M., Carman, J., Rosenthal, S., Maibach, E., Kotcher, J., & Leiserowitz, A. (2023). Global Warming’s Six Americas across age, race/ethnicity, and gender. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/global-warmings-six-americas-age-race-ethnicity-gender/

Bharadwaj, R., Okorie, S., & Ndhlovu, C., et al. (2023). Living in the shadow of loss and damage: uncovering non-economic impacts. IIED, London. https://www.iied.org/21891iied

Cissé, G., R. McLeman, H., & Adams, P., et al. (2022). Health, wellbeing, and the changing structure of communities. In Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844.009

Clayton, S., Manning, C. M., Hill, A. N., & Speiser, M. (2023). Mental health and our changing climate: children and youth report 2023. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica. https://ecoamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Children-and-Youth-Report-2023.pdf

Global Coalition for Youth Mental Health (2025). UNICEF Perceptions of Youth Mental Health Report 2025: Understanding the Mental Health Impact of Global Challenges on Gen Z. https://www.youthmentalhealthcoalition.org/media/591/file/Genz-global-report-EN.pdf

Global Witness (2024, Sept.). Missing Voices: The Violent Erasure of Land and Environmental Defenders. https://gw.cdn.ngo/media/documents/Missing_Voices_-_Global_Witness_land_and_environmental_defenders_report.pdf

Making Caring Common. (2023). On edge: Understanding and preventing young adults’ mental health challenges. https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/on-edge

Mamo, D. (ed.), 2024: The Indigenous World 2024. International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), Eks-Skolen Trykkeri, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Tyson, A. & Kennedy, B. (2023, October 25). How Americans view future harms from climate change in their community and around the U.S., Ch. 3: Climate activism. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/?p=104173

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. (2021, March). A new eco-social contract: Vital to deliver the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Issue Brief 11. https://sdgs.un.org/sites/default/files/2021-07/UNRISD%20-%20A%20New%20Eco-Social%20Contract.pdf

Evans, G. (2019). Projected behavioral impacts of global climate change. Annual Review of Psychology, 70, 449-474. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103023

Gunasiri, H., Wang, Y., Watkins, E.-M., et al. (2022). Hope, coping and eco-anxiety: Young people’s mental health in a climate-impacted Australia. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 19, Article5528. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095528

Hadfield, K., Sulowska, M., Rasolomalala, N., et al. (2024). ‘There is no hope; only strong wind’: How climate change impacts adolescent mental health in southern Madagascar. Journal of Climate Change and Health, 23, Article 10043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2025.100438

Hickman, C. (2024). Eco-anxiety in children and young people–A rational response, irreconcilable despair, or both? The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 77(1), 356–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.2023.2287381

Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, R. E., & Mayall, E. E., et al. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. Lancet Planetary Health, 5, e863–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3

Koder, J., Dunk, J., & Rhodes, P. (2023). Climate distress: A review of current psychological research and practice. Sustainability 15(10), Article 8115. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108115

Lewandowski, R. E., Clayton, S. D., Olbrich, L., Sakshaug, J. W., Wray, B., Schwartz, S. E., et al. (2024). Climate emotions, thoughts, and plans among US adolescents and young adults: A cross-sectional descriptive survey and analysis by political party identification and self-reported exposure to severe weather events. Lancet Planetary Health, 8(11), E879-E893. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00229-8

Lykins, A. D., Parsons, M. Craig, B. M., Cosh, S. M., et al. (2023). Australian youth mental health and climate change concern after the Black Summer bushfires. EcoHealth, 20, 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-023-01630-1

Lutz, P. K., Passmore, H.-A., Howell, A. J., et al. (2023). The continuum of eco-anxiety responses: A preliminary investigation of its nomological network. Collabra: Psychology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.67838

Maduneme, E. (2024). Some slice of climate anxiety … is good: A cross-sectional survey exploring the relationship between college students’ media exposure and perceptions about climate change. Journal of Health Communication, 29(sup1), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2024.2354370

Middleton, J., Cunsolo, A., Jones-Bitton, A., et al. (2020). Indigenous mental health in a changing climate: A systematic scoping review of the global literature. Environmental Research Letters (15), Article053001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab68a9

Nisbett, N., & Spaiser, V. (2023). Moral power of youth activists–Transforming international climate politics?, Global Environmental Change (82), Article 102717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102717

Ogunbode, C.A., Doran, R., Hanss, D., et al. (2022). Climate anxiety, wellbeing and proenvironmental action: Correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology (84), Article 101887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101887

Ogunbode, C.A., Pallesen, S., Böhm, G., et al. (2023). Negative emotions about climate change are related to insomnia symptoms and mental health: Cross-sectional evidence from 25 countries. Curr Psychol, 42, 845–854. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01385-4

Ojala, M., Cunsolo, A., Ogunbode, C. A., & Middleton, J. (2021). Anxiety, worry, and grief in a time of environmental and climate crisis: A narrative review. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 46, 35-58. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-022716

Pikhala, P. (2020) The cost of bearing witness to the environmental crisis: vicarious traumatization and dealing with secondary traumatic stress among environmental researchers, Social Epistemology, 34(1), 86-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2019.1681560

Reyes, M. E. S., Carmen, B. P. B., Luminarias, M. E. P., et al. (2023). An investigation into the relationship between climate change anxiety and mental health among Gen Z Filipinos.Curr Psychol, 42, 7448–7456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02099-3

Swim, J. K., Aviste, R., Lengieza, M. L., & Fasano, C. J.. (2022). OK Boomer: A decade of generational differences in feelings about climate change. Global Environmental Change, 73, Article 102479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102479

Vecchio, E. A., Dickson, M., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Indigenous mental health and climate change: A systematic literature review. Journal of Climate Change and Health, 6, Article 100121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100121

Wood D., Crapnell T., Lau, L., et al. (2017). Emerging Adulthood as a Critical Stage in the Life Course. In Halfon N., Forrest, C. B., Lerner, R. M., et al., editors. Handbook of Life Course Health Development, Springer. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK543712/#_ncbi_dlg_citbx_NBK543712

Published: September 22, 2025

Author: Laura Carter Robinson, Psy.D., clinical psychologist, Humanity&Planet

Editor: Colleen Rollins, PhD