Self-Determination Theory and Climate Anxiety: Investigating the role of Motivation for Pro-environmental Behaviour

Abstract

The present study attempted to shed more light on the phenomenon of Climate Change Anxiety, based on the central principles of Self-Determination Theory. The data were collected via online questionnaire. A sample of N=98 participants showed a positive relationship between Climate Change Anxiety and Pro-Environmental Behavior. This relationship was examined through the role of autonomous and controlled motivation as an explanatory process. The main relation was analyzed via regression analysis. Then, mediation analysis showed partial mediating effects of Integrated and Introjected motivation on the studied relationship. The mediating effect of Integrated motivation was bigger than that of Introjected motivation, highlighting that when anxiety is internally integrated by the person experiencing it, it is becomes a healthy behavioral force. The positive relation between Climate Change Anxiety and features of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, indicated a clinical subsistence of the phenomenon