Climate anxiety mediates environmental concern and climate action among Filipino youth: does mitigation response efficacy belief matter?

Emerging evidence suggests that environmental concern and healthy levels of climate anxiety can spark climate action among the youth. However, very little is known about how efficacy beliefs related to climate mitigation come into play with environmental concern and climate anxiety in encouraging climate action. Hence, this study investigated a moderated mediation model predicting engagement in climate action among the youth in the Philippines, one of the top climate hazard countries globally. Specifically, the study tested the positive relationship between environmental concern and climate action via climate anxiety and the moderating effect of mitigation response efficacy beliefs. This cross-sectional study involved 467 Filipino adolescents (Mean age = 19.19; SD age = 1.02) recruited through an online questionnaire comprising measures of climate anxiety, environmental concern, self-reported climate action, and mitigation response efficacy. Findings revealed a positive association between environmental concern and engagement in climate action. The study also found a significant mediation effect of climate anxiety on the relationship between environmental concern and engagement in climate action among individuals with high levels of mitigation response efficacy but not among those with moderate and low levels of efficacy beliefs. Climate anxiety is a psychological mechanism linking the positive influence of environmental concern on climate action among Filipino youth. The mediating effect of climate anxiety is more salient when adolescents believe that individual and collective efforts are effective in addressing the climate crisis.