Youth climate activism on social media: Building psychosocial resilience among minority youth

Project Summary/Abstract Climate change is a global crisis and an issue of intergenerational injustice, placing disproportionate and unjust harm on young people and future generations. Consequentially, young people are experiencing significant climate-related psychological distress. Climate change also exacerbates existing inequalities, resulting in

worse mental health burden on youth who face greater social and environmental vulnerabilities (e.g., socioeconomically disadvantaged youth, Black, Indigenous, Youth of color [BIYOC]). Young people are increasingly engaging with climate change issues through social media. Unfortunately, social media can have

emotional consequences, exposing youth to a higher volume of information about the climate crisis without strategies for managing distress. Moreover, recent increases in racial discrimination via social media place BIYOC at greater risk for mental health difficulties when engaging with climate activism in online spaces. The

current study will explore how minority youth experiences with climate activism via social media confer youth risk and resilience for psychopathology and impact equity-focused climate action to inform prevention efforts that reduce climate-related mental health consequences and race-based health disparities. In Aim 1, will use

social network analysis and content analysis to elucidate network properties and content of influential climate activism social media accounts to inform strategies that may enhance the reach and uptake of messages centering climate-racial justice advocacy and minority mental health promotion. Aim 2 will draw on youth

participatory action methods using ethnographic tools to explore minority youth perceptions of how engaging with climate activism on social media impacts mental health and behaviors. In Aim 3, we will retain a subset of youth from Aim 2 and recruit adult environmental health specialists to co-design a minority-focused climate

resilience social media campaign, informed by theory and findings from Aims 1 and 2 on resilience building, minority-focused climate communication strategies. We will collect pilot data regarding minority youth perceptions of campaign feasibility and acceptability, as well as youth and adult perceptions of the partnership

process. Successful completion of these aims will contribute to the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative Strategic Framework to understand the effects of climate change-induced stress on youth development and NIMHD Priority Research Areas to reduce the effects of climate change among populations who experience

health disparities looking at multiple domains (i.e., behavioral, sociocultural) and multiple levels (i.e., individual, interpersonal) of influence.