Parents in the face of the climate crisis

Children and adolescents are the groups particularly vulnerable to the consequences of the climate crisis. Global warming, extreme weather phenomena, and progressive environmental degradation have an adverse effect on their development. It is up to the adults to make decisions and actions allowing for mitigating the consequences of climate change, opting for an environmentally friendly household management, offering protection and support to the children, as well as explaining the situation to them and shaping their attitudes. That is why the presented research focuses precisely on parents, the specificity of their functioning in the climate crisis compared to childless people. The study included a group of 333 adults, including 67 parents. Self-report methods were used, including questionnaires developed specifically for this project that examined knowledge about the climate and belief in climate myths; as well as the inventories on current and planned pro-ecological activity. The proprietary scale examining climate emotions and the Climate Change Anxiety Scale by Clayton and Karazsia were also used. The relationships between the variables established in the group of parents and the differences between the groups of people who are parents and those who do not have children were analyzed. Based on the results of the study, an attempt was made to analyze the experiences and behaviours of parents in the context of the climate crisis, and a number of guidelines were formulated that can help them in dealing with children so that they experience the climate situation in the least burdensome way possible, while at the same time receiving support from adults, creating habits that are good for the climate and building up the motivation for pro-environmental activity.