Climate anxiety, pro-environmental behavior, and perceived barriers in university students: analysis of a publicly available dataset from the United States

IntroductionClimate change anxiety is increasingly recognized as an important psychological response to the climate crisis among young adults, but its link to climate-related behaviors remains unclear.MethodsUsing the four-factor Climate Anxiety Scale (CAS), this secondary analysis of a public dataset examined whether cognitive-emotional difficulties, functional impairment, personal experience with climate change, and behavioral engagement predicted pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and perceived barriers to climate action in a sample of American university students (N = 435; ages 18, 22; 72.6% female). Composite scores derived from five PEB categories and five barrier categories were analyzed with Poisson regression, complemented by binomial sensitivity analyses.ResultsBoth Poisson models were significant [PEB: LR χ2(4) = 62.57, p < 0.001; perceived barriers: LR χ2(4) = 46.32, p < 0.001], and behavioral engagement was the only significant predictor in each (IRRs = 1.049 and 1.035, respectively). In sex-stratified models, behavioral engagement predicted PEB among females, whereas personal experience predicted PEB among males; behavioral engagement predicted perceived barriers in both groups. Binomial sensitivity analyses largely confirmed these patterns, with behavioral engagement the most consistent predictor across outcomes, sexes, and analytic approaches.DiscussionTogether, these findings suggest that it is the behavioral and motivational components of the CAS, rather than climate anxiety as a global construct, that are most consistently associated with PEB and barrier awareness. By contrast, the distress-related dimensions showed little independent association with either outcome apart from a small model-dependent association between Cognitive, Emotional Difficulties and PEB in the binomial sensitivity analyses. These findings underscore the value of treating climate anxiety as a multidimensional construct in research and intervention efforts aimed at translating climate concern into sustained action.