A controlled trial of contemplative-based climate resilience training in university students
Philippe R. Goldin, Aaron M. Eisen, Amanda Frazier, Elena Fromer, Lucy Kho, Jillian Grialou, Diana Hill, Nichol Chase, Larisa Castillo, Cindy Wong, David E. Presti, Gail Wright, Viveka Ramel, Cassandra Vieten, Alison Holman, Sheri Weiser, Vickie Mays, Jyoti Mishra, Elissa S Epel
preprint DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-10122692/v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Controlled intervention study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 395 |
| Population | Undergraduate and graduate students across 10 universities |
| Intervention | Contemplative-based climate resilience (CBCR) didactic and experiential course |
| Key points | The authors report that a climate-focused contemplative-based climate resilience course produced significantly greater improvements than environmental courses in climate distress, climate self-efficacy, mental distress, well-being, mindfulness, nature connection, hopelessness, climate loneliness, self-compassion, and emotional dysregulation. An exploratory network analysis identified climate self-efficacy as the most important node, related to decreased climate loneliness and increased nature connection and emotional well-being. |
Abstract
Abstract Global events are becoming more complex at a swifter pace than humans are developing resilience. This leads to increasing dissonance and despair, especially in young adults who are experiencing mental distress and dread at exceedingly high rates. Awareness of global warming is increasing climate distress and decreasing self-efficacy. However, younger minds are also highly flexible, curious, and open to learning. Here, we tested a newly developed climate-focused contemplative-based climate resilience (CBCR) didactic and experiential course in undergraduate and graduate students across 10 universities. Compared to 103 environmental course control participants, 292 CBCR participants reported significantly greater improvement in primary outcomes (climate distress, climate self-efficacy, and mental distress), and secondary outcomes (well-being, mindfulness, nature connection, hopelessness, climate loneliness, self-compassion, and emotional dysregulation). An exploratory network analysis of pre-to-post CBCR changes revealed that the most important node (entity) was climate self-efficacy which was related to decreased climate loneliness, and increased nature connection and emotional wellbeing. Our university-based CBCR course appears to be a robust method to reduce climate distress and enhance mental health in young adults and to train resilience skills applicable to a wide range of social issues.