Eco-Anxiety Negatively Impacts Daily Lives of One in Two U.S. Youth According to Sacred Heart University Poll

FAIRFIELD, Conn. — According to a new Sacred Heart University poll, the country has a generation in which more than half of U.S. youth are experiencing “eco-anxiety,” defined as, “My level of concern for climate change causes psychological distress that impacts my daily life.”

Across U.S. census regions, youth ascribed surprisingly high and similar levels of importance to issues of sustainability, social justice and climate change. A majority feel a sense of individual responsibility to act but have little confidence in the impact of individual actions. Survey respondents also highlighted higher education as having an important role to play in teaching the capacities of caring and consciousness/awareness/mindfulness, which were highly rated as necessary for solving the problems of sustainability and social justice.

These are some of the findings from a recent national survey conducted by the newly formed Institute for Sustainability & Social Justice at Sacred Heart University in partnership with GreatBlue Research. They surveyed 2,000 young people in the U.S. aged 15 to 29 between July 29 and August 5, 2024.

“The consistent high level of agreement on the importance of sustainability and social justice regardless of census region was surprising given the commonly divisive political rhetoric in our country,” says Kirk Bartholomew, development director for the Institute of Sustainability & Social Justice at SHU. “The disconnect reported between U.S. youth feeling responsibility to take action verses feeling that individual actions are not effective could be contributing to the high levels of eco-anxiety experienced. This distress, coupled with respondents’ high ranking of the need for colleges and universities to engage in sustainability and social justice issues, suggests a clear responsibility and opportunity for higher ed.”

Here are some key findings:

Distress and worry: More than half of U.S. youth report experiencing “eco-anxiety,” a level of psychological distress that impacts their daily lives, and three in four report: “I am personally worried about climate change.”

Not as divided as we seem: Surprisingly, there was little difference between census regions on most questions. For example, in addition to the high rating on the importance of sustainability and social justice, nearly eight in 10 across regions rank the inner capacities of “caring” and “consciousness/awareness/mindfulness” as important for solving these problems and believe universities should teach these capacities.

Disconnect between importance/responsibility vs. effective action: While most U.S. youth believe they have an individual responsibility to address climate change (77%), nearly six in 10 supported statements that individual actions will have “limited” or “no effect.”

Opportunities for higher ed: One in two U.S. youth consider sustainability and social justice issues relevant to their future employment, and nearly three in five say they either currently are or would have been “more likely” to apply to a college or university that offered a program focused on sustainability and social justice.

“The institute at SHU was founded, in part, to raise up youth voices and take direction from them about how to address their distress and desires relating to climate change and social justice,” says Brooke Suter, a specialist working with Bartholomew and the institute to help identify and expand sustainability-related data collection and interdisciplinary programming at the University. “Their responses reveal a sophistication relating to the inner capacities needed, and results suggest areas where education may be failing them, especially in basic concepts of democracy and change-making, such as collective action. This is especially striking in an election year, when issues relating to sustainability and social justice were shown to be clearly important for this group of voters.”

The statistical margin of error for this 48-question, nationwide digital survey with 2,000 respondents was ±2.1% at a 95% confidence level.

The full report, Distress and Desires—United States Youth on Sustainability, Social Justice, Climate Change and the Role of Higher Education is available at the institute’s website, along with additional materials. All survey questions and frequency tables are available upon request.

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