title: A meta-analysis on the relationship between climate anxiety and wellbeing

authors: Gago, Tomás

subjects: climate change

abstract: Climate anxiety refers to the negative emotional reactions that a person can experience in response to climate change irrespective of prior direct experience with it. Research suggests this emotional reaction ranges from successful coping and adaptation to clinical-level psychological impairment. The Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS) was designed to measure a person's level of climate anxiety impairment. However, inconsistent results when testing the relationship between CCAS scores and psychological wellbeing measures have raised questions about the scale's validity and usefulness for assessing climate change's mental health impacts. Our goal was to quantitatively summarise the direction and strength of the correlations between climate anxiety (as indexed by the CCAS) and measures of psychological wellbeing. We identified 25 studies and 60 effect sizes for inclusion, and meta-analytic results indicated a moderate negative correlation between overall CCAS scores and psychological wellbeing (r = −0.296, 95% CI [-0.360; −0.230], p < .001). The meta-analytic estimates were consistent across CCAS subscales and diagnosis-specific measures of wellbeing. Multilevel meta-regressions used to estimate the influence of potential moderators indicated that the correlations were stronger when the sample's mean level of environmental identity was higher, and when a measure indicative of mental unwellness was used. We discuss implications for the nature of the relationship between climate anxiety and psychological wellbeing in general, and for the use of the CCAS in clinical and broader contexts.

text: A meta-analysis on the relationship between climate anxiety and wellbeing Climate anxiety refers to the negative emotional reactions that a person can experience in response to climate change irrespective of prior direct experience with it. Research suggests this emotional reaction ranges from successful coping and adaptation to clinical-level psychological impairment. The Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS) was designed to measure a person's level of climate anxiety impairment. However, inconsistent results when testing the relationship between CCAS scores and psychological wellbeing measures have raised questions about the scale's validity and usefulness for assessing climate change's mental health impacts. Our goal was to quantitatively summarise the direction and strength of the correlations between climate anxiety (as indexed by the CCAS) and measures of psychological wellbeing. We identified 25 studies and 60 effect sizes for inclusion, and meta-analytic results indicated a moderate negative correlation between overall CCAS scores and psychological wellbeing (r = −0.296, 95% CI [-0.360; −0.230], p < .001). The meta-analytic estimates were consistent across CCAS subscales and diagnosis-specific measures of wellbeing. Multilevel meta-regressions used to estimate the influence of potential moderators indicated that the correlations were stronger when the sample's mean level of environmental identity was higher, and when a measure indicative of mental unwellness was used. We discuss implications for the nature of the relationship between climate anxiety and psychological wellbeing in general, and for the use of the CCAS in clinical and broader contexts.

year: 2024-03

title: Migration and career success: testing a time-sequenced model

authors: Tharmaseelan, Nithya

subjects: careers

abstract: Purpose – The paper seeks to determine whether different aspects of migrant pre-migration characteristics (human capital and motivation to migrate) and post-migration behaviour (social integration and career self-management) predict migrants' post-migration career success.

Design/methodology/approach – The research employed a survey questionnaire applied to a sample of 210 migrants who had migrated from Sri Lanka to New Zealand. Twenty-three independent and three dependent (career success – objective and subjective) variables were measured. Sequential multiple regression analysis was applied, mirroring the time-sequenced theory of career development.

Findings – Overall, migrants' occupational status had declined markedly following migration. Variables representing human capital, social integration and career self-management perspectives all contributed substantially to explaining variances in career success, especially objective career success, but motivation to migrate did not. Human capital variables were especially influential in determining pre-migration success, acculturation in the host country and education in the host country in post-migration success. Effects of career self-management behaviours on success were relatively small.

Research limitations/implications – A limitation is the cross-sectional design, and possible non-generalisability beyond a single migrant group and host country.

Practical implications – The paper discusses implications for migrants, policy makers and future research.

Originality/value – Migration, and interest in research on migrants' careers, is growing. This paper applies a wide range of predictor variables and a logical causal model to predicting migrant career success, indicates significant effects, and points to positive actions that may be taken by government, organisations and migrants.

text: Migration and career success: testing a time-sequenced model Purpose – The paper seeks to determine whether different aspects of migrant pre-migration characteristics (human capital and motivation to migrate) and post-migration behaviour (social integration and career self-management) predict migrants' post-migration career success.

Design/methodology/approach – The research employed a survey questionnaire applied to a sample of 210 migrants who had migrated from Sri Lanka to New Zealand. Twenty-three independent and three dependent (career success – objective and subjective) variables were measured. Sequential multiple regression analysis was applied, mirroring the time-sequenced theory of career development.

Findings – Overall, migrants' occupational status had declined markedly following migration. Variables representing human capital, social integration and career self-management perspectives all contributed substantially to explaining variances in career success, especially objective career success, but motivation to migrate did not. Human capital variables were especially influential in determining pre-migration success, acculturation in the host country and education in the host country in post-migration success. Effects of career self-management behaviours on success were relatively small.

Research limitations/implications – A limitation is the cross-sectional design, and possible non-generalisability beyond a single migrant group and host country.

Practical implications – The paper discusses implications for migrants, policy makers and future research.

Originality/value – Migration, and interest in research on migrants' careers, is growing. This paper applies a wide range of predictor variables and a logical causal model to predicting migrant career success, indicates significant effects, and points to positive actions that may be taken by government, organisations and migrants.

year: 2010

title: An ashy septingentenarian: the Kaharoa tephra turns 700 (with notes on its volcanological, archaeological, and historical importance)

authors: Lowe, David J.

abstract: Most of us are aware of the basaltic Tarawera eruption on 10th June 1886: the high toll on life (~120 people), landscape devastation, and loss of the Pink and White Terraces. But this was not the first time that Mt Tarawera produced an eruption of importance both to volcanology and human history. This edition of the GSNZ Newsletter marks the 700th anniversary of the Kaharoa eruption – its septingentenary to be precise – which occurred at Mt Tarawera in the winter of 1314 AD (± 12 years) (Hogg et al. 2003) (Fig. 1). The importance of the Kaharoa eruption is at least threefold. (1) It is the most recent rhyolite eruption in New Zealand, and the largest New Zealand eruption volumetrically of the last millennium. (2) The Kaharoa tephra is an important marker horizon in late Holocene stratigraphy and geoarchaeology (Lowe et al. 1998, 2000), and in particular helps to constrain the timing of settlement of early Polynesians in North Island (Newnham et al. 1998; Hogg et al. 2003; Lowe 2011). (3) There is a link between the soils that developed on the Kaharoa tephra, the animal ‘wasting’ disease known as ‘bush sickness’, and the birth of a government soil survey group as an independent organisation (Tonkin 2012).

text: An ashy septingentenarian: the Kaharoa tephra turns 700 (with notes on its volcanological, archaeological, and historical importance) Most of us are aware of the basaltic Tarawera eruption on 10th June 1886: the high toll on life (~120 people), landscape devastation, and loss of the Pink and White Terraces. But this was not the first time that Mt Tarawera produced an eruption of importance both to volcanology and human history. This edition of the GSNZ Newsletter marks the 700th anniversary of the Kaharoa eruption – its septingentenary to be precise – which occurred at Mt Tarawera in the winter of 1314 AD (± 12 years) (Hogg et al. 2003) (Fig. 1). The importance of the Kaharoa eruption is at least threefold. (1) It is the most recent rhyolite eruption in New Zealand, and the largest New Zealand eruption volumetrically of the last millennium. (2) The Kaharoa tephra is an important marker horizon in late Holocene stratigraphy and geoarchaeology (Lowe et al. 1998, 2000), and in particular helps to constrain the timing of settlement of early Polynesians in North Island (Newnham et al. 1998; Hogg et al. 2003; Lowe 2011). (3) There is a link between the soils that developed on the Kaharoa tephra, the animal ‘wasting’ disease known as ‘bush sickness’, and the birth of a government soil survey group as an independent organisation (Tonkin 2012).

year: 2014