Climate change represents a threat to the future of young people everywhere; from a mental health point of view, emotions such as fear and intense worry can manifest themselves as a construct termed climate anxiety (CA). Using an online survey, we evaluated the general anxiety and CA of a sample of university students [n = 461, 64.5% identified as women; mean age (standard deviation) = 21.4 (1.6)] as well as a diverse set of psychosocial variables (i.e., exposure to social media and news, knowledge about climate change, prosociality, and their disposition to donate to conservation efforts) to obtain a profile of potential measures associated with vulnerability to CA. Using generalized linear models, we found that participants who identified as women, spent more time reading news sites, had more knowledge about climate change, were more prosocial and more willing to donate to conservation efforts had higher CA scores, but not more generalized anxiety. In addition, we found that students whose courses involved information about climate change had higher CA scores. Identifying the characteristics of individuals vulnerable to CA may help address their negative feelings so that they can overcome anxiety and turn to meaningful positive action.
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