Climate change and the mental health of children and young people
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-12)

Children and young people are at heightened risk from the mental health and wellbeing impacts of climate change but there are ways to support them.

CCHS navigation menu: CCHS homepage (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/the-centre-for-climate-health-security)Topic: health impacts (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/health-impacts) Part of: Climate change and mental health (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/climate-change-and-mental-health)

Key resources to support children and young people:

Climate change and the mental health of children and young people

Overview of the climate change and mental health report (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/overview-of-the-climate-change-and-mental-health-report)

Climate change and mental health report (pdf) (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-mental-health-report)

Additional resources:

Eco distress for children and young people (https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/parents-and-young-people/eco-distress-for-young-people)

How to cope with climate anxiety (https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/blog/how-to-cope-with-climate-anxiety/)

Force of Nature (https://www.forceofnature.xyz/community)

Circularity (https://circularitycommunity.com/)

My climate story (https://ecoanxious.ca/resources/my-climate-story)

The Resilience Project (https://theresilienceproject.org.uk/)

Effective climate change communication with children (https://globelegislators.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Effective%20climate%20change%20communication%20with%20children.pdf)

Preserving the world for future generations: children and young people’s perspective on how to tackle climate change (https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/preserving-the-world-for-future-generations#:~:text=Listening%20event-,Preserving%20the%20world%20for%20future%20generations%3A%20Children%20and%20young%20people's,perceive%20and%20understand%20climate%20change.)

Children and young people’s psychological responses

The climate change and mental health report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-mental-health-report) highlights that children and young people are especially vulnerable to the mental health impacts of climate change. This increased risk stems from their growing awareness of climate threats and their understanding of the long-term implications for their future. As the world warms further they will live through periods of greater impact than current generations. Eco-anxiety amongst young people is associated with a perception of inadequate response from the government (1 (#refs)).

Figure 1. Impacts of climate change on children and young people, from the climate change and mental health report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-change-and-mental-health-report)

The infographic highlights main findings on the impact of climate change on children and young people’s mental health, from the report:
- that negative impacts from an awareness of climate change are greatest among younger populations (high confidence)
- how climate change is communicated to children and young people can contribute to negative mental health and wellbeing (moderate confidence)
- there is an increased risk of negative mental health impacts for children in response to parental reactions to extreme weather events (moderate confidence)
The infographic also highlights one intervention that can help children and young people’s mental wellbeing:
- school- or clinic- based cognitive behavioural programmes delivered after extreme weather events may reduce PTSD, anxiety, depression or functional impairment in children (moderate confidence)
Communicating with children about climate change

There are ways to communicate the climate crisis in sensitive ways to help minimise climate stress in children and young people. Coco’s Fire is an animation video that accompanies a book of the same name aimed at helping children and young people understand and deal with climate distress. It is an example of how to communicate with young children to help alleviate their anxiety about climate change.

Coco’s Fire: Changing Climate Anxiety into Climate Action (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyGZmd-kFoY)

References

Hickman C, Marks E, Pihkala P, Clayton S, Lewandowski ER, Mayall EE, and others (2021). ‘Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climat… (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext)’ Lancet Planetary Health: volume 5, page e863