Climate Change Awareness and Mental Health: Cognitive and Emotional Implications

Abstract

Climate change is a growing concern for policy makers and social scientists as it is hurting the cognitive and emotional functioning of the individuals. Existing literature provided strong evidence that awareness level regarding climate change varies with gender, area of residence and level of education. The current study was conducted to find out the level of awareness and how it associates with cognitive-emotional impairment. To meet the objectives of the study, quantitative, explanatory study was designed. Population of the current study was students, teachers and job holders. Researcher selected a sample size of 350 respondents out of which 200 were students and 50 each were teachers, private job holders and industrial job holders. The researcher applied regression analysis to find out the predictive relationship between the variables of the study and found that awareness level regarding climate change is significantly associated with the cognitive-emotional impairment. The standardized coefficient value shows that one unit increase in the independent variable increase the dependent variable by .622 times.  This is quite strong value keeping in view the nature of the data and survey research.