Assignment
Climate change is a pressing concern, and particularly young people with a long future ahead of them, will be subject to its consequences in their life time. In light of this, young people around the world have been found to be worried, some of them even experience anxiety in relation to this, and many are searching for how to contribute to lessening the problem.
Among this group, university students take a special place, because they may form their curricula to become knowledgeable about the problems and potential solutions, and can have an important contribution to alleviating the problems after being graduated. Understanding their level of anxiety and possibilities to alleviate these, and at the same time supporting them towards building valuable curricula and taking climate actions is highly valuable.
At the UT, the climate centre aims to create a vibrant community that facilitates a transition to a resilient, low-carbon society. The climate center is interested in knowing how prevalent climate anxiety is among UT students, and in getting an insight into how they can use their community to work with students, with the aim to reduce mental problems experienced in relation to climate change concerns, and to increase students’ ability to take part in helpful climate action.
In this internship you will be supervised by PCRS staff and by the Climate Center.
This internship can lead into a master thesis study as the study will provide valuable insights on important research questions that you can formulate a thesis topic about.
KEYWORDS
Public acceptance; sustainability; risk perception; public opinion
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ORGANIZATION
The section Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety at the University of Twente has a distinctive and unique profile in the areas of risk perception and risk communication, conflict and crisis management and the antecedents of risky, antisocial and criminal behaviour. It currently includes 15 research staff members and 6 PhD students. We work from both a psychology and an engineering perspective and cooperate with other scientific disciplines, based on the “high tech, human touch” profile of the University of Twente.
AVAILABILITY
This internship is open for 1 or 2 students.
INTERESTED?
Please contact the PCRS internship coordinator Miriam Oostinga (m.s.d.oostinga@utwente.nl).
LITERATURE
- Hope, Coping and Eco-Anxiety: Young People’s Mental Health in a Climate-Impacted Australia
- Supporting young people with climate anxiety: mitigation, adaptation, and resilience - The Lancet Planetary Health
- Climate emotions and anxiety among young people in Canada: A national survey and call to action - ScienceDirect
- Climate anxiety: What predicts it and how is it related to climate action? - ScienceDirect
- "Climate anxiety, pro-environmental action and wellbeing: antecedents a" by Charles A. Ogunbode, Rouven Doran et al.