Climate change worry and psychological distress among Chinese college students: a three-wave longitudinal moderated mediation study

Information from the abstract

Climate change worry has become an emerging mental health concern among young people, yet the psychological processes linking this worry to later distress remain insufficiently understood. General psychological inflexibility may help explain why climate change worry is associated with subsequent anxiety-depressive symptoms, whereas physical activity may condition the strength of the association between psychological inflexibility and later distress. This study examined whether psychological inflexibility statistically mediated the prospective association between climate change worry and psychological distress among Chinese college students and whether physical activity moderated the association between psychological inflexibility and later distress. A three-wave longitudinal survey was conducted among Chinese college students. At Time 1 (T1), participants reported demographic characteristics, climate change worry, baseline psychological inflexibility, and baseline psychological distress. At Time 2 (T2), psychological inflexibility and physical activity were assessed. At Time 3 (T3), psychological distress was reassessed. After matching responses across the three waves using unique participant identifiers and retaining only students who completed all waves and passed quality checks, 1,630 participants were included in the final analyses. Reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, attrition analysis, Harman’s single-factor diagnostic, regression-based longitudinal conditional process analysis, simple slope tests, conditional indirect-effect estimation, collinearity diagnostics, and sensitivity analyses were conducted. T1 climate change worry positively predicted T2 psychological inflexibility after controlling for baseline psychological inflexibility, baseline psychological distress, and demographic covariates (β = 0.255, p < 0.001). T2 psychological inflexibility positively predicted T3 psychological distress in the fully adjusted model (β = 0.252, p < 0.001). The direct association between T1 climate change worry and T3 psychological distress remained significant but small (β = 0.098, p < 0.001). T2 physical activity did not directly predict T3 psychological distress (β = 0.009, p = 0.647), but it significantly moderated the association between T2 psychological inflexibility and T3 psychological distress (β = -0.072, p < 0.001). The index of moderated mediation was significant, indicating that the indirect association was weaker at higher levels of physical activity. The findings supported a longitudinal conditional association linking climate change worry to later psychological distress among Chinese college students. General psychological inflexibility represented a statistically significant prospective pathway, whereas physical activity functioned as a modest behavioral boundary condition on the association between psychological inflexibility and later distress. Because physical activity did not show a significant direct association with later distress and the conditional indirect association remained significant even at high physical activity, the findings are best interpreted as attenuation rather than elimination of risk. These results support considering psychological flexibility-oriented support together with accessible physical activity opportunities in university mental health services.

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Related topics: Climate Change Communication and Perception · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions