Psychometric properties of an Adapted Climate Change Coping Scale in a sample of Canadian adolescents

Climate change is a threat to the health and wellbeing of adolescents. Many adolescents express concern, worry, and anxiety about climate change. Yet, how adolescents are coping with their thoughts and feelings about climate change is not well understood. The objective of this research was to explore the psychometric properties of an Adapted Climate Change Coping Scale (CCCS-A) in a non-probabilistic sample of approximately 800 Canadian adolescents. Exploratory factor analysis was utilized. Internal reliability was assessed, and convergent validity was examined through analysis of correlations with related constructs. Correlations with wellbeing and mental health measures were also explored. The results indicated that four dimensions of coping with thoughts and feelings about climate change (de-emphasizing, distracting, problem-focused coping, and meaning-focused coping) were operationalized through a scale with 16-items. This extends prior scales in that it includes both measures of de-emphasizing and distracting coping within a single survey tool. Evidence of construct validity was found, and the internal reliability of subscales were good (ω ranged from 0.79 to 0.88). The sub-scales showed evidence of convergent validity. Additionally, all coping dimensions were positively associated with wellbeing, while associations with mental health problems were mixed across coping dimensions. The CCCS-A is a survey tool with demonstrated validity and reliability that captures a range of coping strategies adolescents use in response to climate change. This addresses a critical gap in climate change and mental wellbeing research by presenting a validated tool to assess adolescent climate change coping mechanisms.