Teens reveal how climate change is reshaping their mental health

Ask Canadian teenagers how climate change feels, and many won’t mince words. In a new Athabasca University study of 800 youths aged 13 to 18, more than a third – 37 percent – said the warming world is affecting their mental health.

The teens described a mix of anxiety, stress, and persistent worry about what the next season might bring.

Some were blunt about their fears for the future. One wrote that they were already thinking twice about becoming a parent because “it will keep getting worse for them.”

The research, led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ishwar Tiwari with co-author Dr. Gina Martin from Athabasca University, set out to do something surprisingly rare: allow teens explain, in their own words, how climate change shows up in their daily lives.

“We’re seeing a lot of increased attention around how young people are feeling,” Martin said. “We wanted to better understand, from their perspective, how climate change is impacting their mental health.”

Teens feel climate change directly

What stands out is how personal the stress has become. Teens didn’t just cite doom-scrolling or vague dread. They tied their worries to specific events – smoke-choked skies, heat warnings, flooded streets, canceled sports practices.

The lines between mental and physical strain blurred. Many mentioned trouble sleeping during wildfire season. Others reported breathing issues, headaches, and fatigue when air quality plummeted.

The survey didn’t even ask about physical symptoms, but the teens brought them up anyway.

“That shows us they’re making the connection themselves,” Martin said. Climate change isn’t an abstract talking point when you can feel it in your lungs.

Anxiety about tomorrow’s world

Beyond the immediate stress, the survey captured a deeper unease about what’s ahead. Teens felt uncertain about their futures.

They worried about jobs in unstable economies, homes lost to fires or floods, and whether their towns would still feel like home in ten years.

Some asked hard questions about family – should they have children in a world that feels increasingly unstable?

That kind of uncertainty can be corrosive. It doesn’t just rattle nerves – it changes how a young person plans, studies, and dreams.

Climate stress spans all communities

A strength of the project is its breadth. The team worked with a polling firm to reach teens from coast to coast to coast, from large cities to rural and remote communities.

They also made a point of including younger teens – ages 13 to 17 – who are often overlooked in climate and mental health research that skews toward university-aged participants.

“People are going to have different direct experiences depending on where they live,” Martin said. A teen in the North who has lived through wildfire evacuations processes risk differently than a downtown teen watching heat alerts stack up. Both are legitimate. Both deserve tailored support.

Climate toll becomes clearer

The responses sorted into a few clear themes. First were emotional and psychological impacts: anxiety, stress, sadness, fear – exactly the feelings that terms like “climate anxiety” or “eco-anxiety” try to capture.

Second were worries about personal futures, from school and work to the basic question of whether a hometown remains habitable. Third came broader concern for the environment, wildlife, and humanity – grief for what’s already been lost and fear of what’s still coming.

Finally, there was disruption to everyday life. Sleepless nights, difficulty concentrating, and a sense that you can’t plan summer like you used to – because the smoke might roll in – became normal.

Building mental health into policy

Published in PLOS Mental Health, the study doesn’t wallow. It points to concrete steps schools, health systems, and governments can take.

First, acknowledge the reality: if teens say climate change is affecting their mental health, believe them. Second, build mental health supports into climate planning the same way we stockpile sandbags and N95s.

Such support should include school programs that teach coping skills. It should also mean community check-ins before, during, and after extreme events – and clear resources for families when smoke or heat lingers.

Communication matters too. Teens are asking adults to connect the dots between events and policy without spiraling into catastrophe talk.

Honest, practical information helps. So does action. Involvement – school initiatives, youth councils, local climate projects – gives teens a sense of agency, which is one of the best antidotes to helplessness.

Preparing teens for climate change

There’s a temptation to shield young people from the worst news. The teens in this study don’t need sugarcoating; they need a plan.

That can take many forms. Schools might develop “smoke day” routines. Communities can offer cool spaces during heat waves. Families need clear guidance on when to stay inside and how to protect vulnerable siblings or grandparents.

It can also look like training teachers and pediatric providers to spot climate-related stress and normalize asking for help. Early, steady support keeps short-term strain from hardening into chronic anxiety or depression.

Growing up with climate change

Today’s teenagers are the first generation to come of age with climate change as a constant backdrop. That doesn’t mean they’re fragile – it means they’re realistic.

They already understand that climate risk is here, and that it falls unevenly – by neighborhood, by income, by geography. What they’re asking for is not a pep talk but a partnership.

“We want to make sure we’re protecting young people’s mental health in the context of a changing climate,” Martin said. The point isn’t to pretend the threats aren’t real. It’s to show, again and again, that adults will meet those threats with practical protections and a path forward.

Listening must lead to action

The headline number – 37 percent – is sobering. The quotes behind it are even more so. Teens are telling us that climate stress now threads through their sleep, their school days, their plans.

Meeting that honesty with credible action is the job. If we do it well, worry can give way to something sturdier: a shared sense that, while the world is changing, we’re changing with it – together, and on purpose.

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