Numerous recent studies show that children are concerned about the climate crisis and its effects (e.g., Burke et al., Reference Burke, Sanson and Van Hoorn2018; Hickman et al., Reference Hickman, Marks, Pihkala, Clayton, Lewandowski, Mayall, Wray, Mellor and van Susteren2021). The distress related to global environmental degradation is called ‘eco-anxiety’ and is widely experienced among school-age children. For example, Léger-Goodes et al. (Reference Léger-Goodes, Malboeuf-Hurtubise, Mastine, Généreux, Paradis and Camden2022) reviewed articles and grey papers published in the last 20 years to reveal evidence of eco-anxiety among children (aged <18 years).
Eco-anxiety is not a psychopathological condition, but an emotionally compatible and constructive response to climate and biodiversity crises. Moreover, ecological concern is necessary to take precautions, develop pro-environmental attitudes, find solutions, and create resources for negative situations that are predicted to occur in the future (Cunsolo et al., Reference Cunsolo, Harper, Minor, Hayes, Williams and Howard2020). The literature highlights that eco-anxiety is unlikely to be categorised as a psychiatric disorder on its own but that it can trigger and exacerbate existing problems (Hickman, Reference Hickman2020; Panu, Reference Panu2020).
Children need the support of adults and the school system to manage their eco-anxiety in a healthy way. Schools are ideal spaces where the issue of eco-anxiety can be discussed. As mental health professionals working within the education system, school counsellors are in an ideal position to facilitate the management of eco-anxiety among children and lead other educators. Despite its prevalence among young people, eco-anxiety has not been adequately discussed in school counselling literature. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, only one article (Nice et al., Reference Nice, Forziat-Pytel, Benoit and Sturm2022) and one master’s thesis (Koontz, Reference Koontz2021) have dealt with this issue. This article can contribute to the discussion of what school counsellors can do to protect the mental health of school-age children in the face of the adverse effects of an ecological crisis, encourage the inclusion of an ecologically based mental health understanding in counsellor education, and provide tangible and practical suggestions to school counsellors in this context.
The Roles of School Counsellors
School counselling is a profession that fills many complex, unique, and vital roles in the education system. For example, school counsellors are social justice advocates (Ratts et al., Reference Ratts, DeKruyf and Chen-Hayes2007), and an ecological crisis is a social justice issue. Children who are criticised for their ecological concerns and made to feel as if their feelings are invalid need advocacy (Hickman, Reference Hickman2020). School counsellors advocate for students whose situations and feelings are not well understood. School counsellors develop preventive interventions for the wellbeing of all students throughout the school and cooperate with other experts and institutions (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2019). Eco-anxiety is not something that a person or unit within a school can handle on their own; it requires collaboration with other experts and the school community. School counsellors can play a proactive leadership role in social crises needing intervention and prevention (McMahon et al., Reference McMahon, Mason, Daluga-Guenther and Ruiz2014), and ecological crises are no exception.
Furthermore, there is evidence that those who experience the most acute forms of anxiety, grief and trauma about the climate crisis have less access to mental health services (Cunsolo & Ellis, Reference Cunsolo and Ellis2018; Sanson et al., Reference Sanson, Van Hoorn and Burke2019). School counsellors are the most competent professionals in the field of mental health in the education system. The following practical suggestions for school counsellors to apply when addressing eco-anxiety are provided, and useful resources that school counsellors can use in supporting students are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. Climate change and helpful resources for school counsellors
See the Anxiety, Empathise With It, and Guide Other Adults to Understand It
As children’s ecological concerns are glossed over or sometimes belittled by adults, they feel guilt, shame, and helplessness. However, when young people perceive their communication with parents as respectful, positive, and solution-oriented, they tended to cope better (Ojala & Bengtsson, Reference Ojala and Bengtsson2019).
School counsellors can ensure that students’ eco-anxiety is visible and understandable, either through individual and group counselling sessions or schoolwide awareness presentations and parent-teacher trainings. One of the primary duties of school counsellors is to provide training and consultation services to parents and other school staff members (ASCA, 2019). Such activities may help parents and other educators gain insight into the emotional reactions of children regarding climate crises. In addition, these practices help develop an empathetic approach towards children, normalising their eco-anxiety in the eyes of parents and educators, and creating a common hope for the future through intergenerational dialogue (Cunsolo et al., Reference Cunsolo, Harper, Minor, Hayes, Williams and Howard2020). Thus, school counsellors can contribute to forming a school community with ecological value. Additionally, such activities prevent stigmatisation of children who worry about climate crises (Hickman, Reference Hickman2020). Online resources that school counselors can use while guiding students, parents, and other educators about eco-anxiety are listed in Table 1.
Cultivate Critical Hope
Despite the negativities brought about by ecological crises, children need to have hope for the world’s future. Individuals with high hope can take action to reach their goals, approach problems more constructively, and show resilience, even in uncertain situations.
Hopeless and even catastrophic messages about the course of an ecological crisis can create a sense of powerlessness, leading to emotional withdrawal or pathological anxiety (Pihkala, Reference Pihkala2019). Hope emerges when one believes it is possible to cope with the situation and create change (Daly, Reference Daly, Thompson and Zizek2013; Ojala, Reference Ojala2015).
The literature emphasises that a critical social lens needs to be applied to the concept of hope to help students transform their eco-anxiety to hope (Facer, Reference Facer2019; Ojala, Reference Ojala2015). Duncan-Andrade’s (Reference Duncan-Andrade2009) concept of critical hope can help school counsellors formulate a vision to build hope-promoting conversations and strategies for students. Resources that school counsellors can use to inspire realistic hope are listed in Table 1.
Support Students’ Positive Adaptation Skills
Emotion regulation through meaning-focused coping skills, ecologic self-efficacy, and social and civic engagement are some of the basic skills necessary for children to manage the psychological effects of the ecological crisis (Sanson et al., Reference Sanson, Van Hoorn and Burke2019). Some resources that could be useful for school counsellors to facilitate such skills are listed in Table 1.
Meaning-focused coping skills
Meaning-focused coping has been empirically tested for its positive effect on managing eco-anxiety (Clayton, Reference Clayton2020; Pihkala, Reference Pihkala2019). Ojala (Reference Ojala2012, Reference Ojala2015) examined the coping skills used by children in the face of an ecological crisis and found that those who approached the crisis with a meaning-focused approach had higher ecological self-efficacy and positive mood, took more pro-environmental actions, and approached the problems with critical hope when compared to emotion-focused and problem-focused coping skills.
Meaning-focused coping is exhibited in behaviours such as evaluating environmental problems by putting them in a historical perspective to have a more holistic understanding of the climate crisis, finding meaning even in difficult situations, reorganising goals and behaviours in the face of changing situations, staying hopeful without losing rationality about climate change, and trusting societal actors, institutions, and scientists who work towards solutions (Burke & Blashki, Reference Burke, Blashki, Blashki and Sykes2020).
Social and civic engagement
Social and civic engagement includes volunteering, active citizenship, and participation in community groups. Children become more resilient and hopeful if they can play an active role in resolving the adverse situations they face regarding the ecological crisis. This protects them psychologically (Hart et al., Reference Hart, Fisher and Kimiagar2014). The way to evolve from the role of victim to that of change agent for the environment is to take action (Sanson et al., Reference Sanson, Van Hoorn and Burke2019). School counsellors should advocate for actions that can be taken in this context and support students in their efforts.
Social and civic engagement also teaches children that climate change is a collective problem that requires collective action. This is important because perceiving climate change as a personal matter makes individuals feel like they have less agency over environmental issues, making them fearful and avoidant (McDonald et al., Reference McDonald, Chai and Newell2015).
Climate change self-efficacy
Perceived self-efficacy is one of the key elements of positive adaptation competencies in managing the psychological impact of climate change (Heald, Reference Heald2017). Children who cannot directly affect the creation of environmental policies but are worried about the ecological crisis often display emotional reactions such as helplessness, frustration, and anger, whereas taking action improves children’s ecological self-efficacy (Sanson et al., Reference Sanson, Van Hoorn and Burke2019). Therefore, how school counsellors can contribute to building students’ climate change self-efficacy is a question that needs to be considered. Talking to children about the areas where they can contribute within the framework of democratic principles allows them to see that they have spheres of influence and that they can play the role of change actors in the environment (Hart et al., Reference Hart, Fisher and Kimiagar2014).
Discussion and Recommendations
School counsellors can provide a space for students to express and normalise their feelings and concerns about climate change. School counsellors can cultivate hope among students by adopting a social justice perspective. They can promote students’ positive adaptation skills, namely, meaning-focused coping, social and civic engagement, and climate change self-efficacy.
Empirical studies on the effects of eco-anxiety on the mental health of children and youth, how this issue should be handled within the education system, and intervention methods that can be applied when it turns into a maladaptive state, are increasing rapidly (Hickman, Reference Hickman2020). Therefore, it is important that school counsellors closely follow ongoing research with curiosity to apply evidence-based methods and approaches in schools.
Finally, school counselling accrediting organisations should consider defining climate literacy competencies for school counsellors. International school counselling associations such as the International Society for Policy Research on School-Based Counseling can provide a list of available resources and materials for school counsellors to address eco-anxiety, so that they can access recommended best practices more easily and learn from each other.
Limitations and Implications for Future Research
As this is a conceptual article on suggestions for how school counsellors can help address eco-anxiety, discussions about the role of school counsellors in handling eco-anxiety are based solely on the existing literature; this can be considered a limitation. Despite this limitation, the present article represents one of the first papers to discuss eco-anxiety and school counselling in an interconnected way, giving school counsellors practical suggestions based on the eco-psychology literature.
More quantitative and qualitative studies are needed to understand the eco-anxiety experienced by school-aged children. For example, how and to whom students express their eco-anxiety, and how students’ eco-anxiety levels change according to certain factors should be investigated further. This would promote the best approaches, strategies, and materials for school counsellors to deal with eco-anxiety. Future studies should aim to identify the difficulties school counsellors face when dealing with eco-anxiety, and the knowledge and materials they need. Such empirical studies can help form a common idea on how to approach eco-anxiety in school counselling.
Finally, tools to aid school counsellors in cultivating meaning-focused coping and critical hope among students are helpful. Therefore, further research is needed to test and refine the theoretical concepts associated with the management of eco-anxiety and to better integrate them into school counselling programs and interventions.
Conclusion
Literature on students’ mental health regarding climate change and school counselling is scarce. However, the effects of climate change on the mental health of school-aged children and eco-anxiety are very common phenomena. In this review, I discussed the role of school counsellors in addressing eco-anxiety.
Financial support
This manuscript received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
