Ecological Grief

cocukpsikiyatrisi-9-2-2023

Esra SİZERa , Serhat NASIROĞLUb

aDiyarbakır Pediatric Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Diyarbakır, Türkiye
bAntalya Bilim University Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology Antalya, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
Ecological grief refers to emotional and psychological distress resulting from the loss of species and natural resources due to climate and environmental changes.The climate crisis affects all living beings, leading to significant losses.We aimed to evaluate the effect of ecological grief that arises due to the climate crisis on children and adolescents. Although ecological grief has been discussed in the literature, it has been observed that a common language has not been established for this term.The impact of ecological grief on the emotional, physical, and identity development of children and adolescents during their developmental period has not been adequately investigated.However, we know that the world is changing, and the climate crisis is escalating. Therefore, whether losses occur or not we need to take realistic and constructive measures at individual, societal, and administrative levels to enhance the coping skills of the younger generations in facing the challenges they will experience and to leave them a habitable world.
Keywords: Ecological; grief; child; adolescent

Referanslar

  1. The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children's Climate Risk Index. New York: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); 2021.
  2. Cunsolo A, Ellis NR. Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Clim Change. 2018;8(4):275-81. [Crossref]
  3. Albrecht G, Sartore GM, Connor L, Higginbotham N, Freeman S, Kelly B, et al. Solastalgia: the distress caused by environmental change. Aus. Psych. 2007;15:95-8. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  4. Higginbotham N, Connor L, Albrecht G, Freeman S, Agho K. Validation of an environmental distress scale. Eco Health. 2006;3:245-54. [Crossref]
  5. Clayton S, Karazsia BT. Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. J Environ Psychol. 2020;69:101434. [Crossref]
  6. Gifford E, Gifford R. The largely unacknowledged impact of climate change on mental health. Bull At Sci. 2016;72(5):292-7. [Crossref]
  7. Verplanken B, Roy D. "My worries are rational, climate change is not": Habitual ecological worrying is an adaptive response. PloS One. 2013;8(9):e74708. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  8. Leopold A. The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries. Univ of Wisconsin Press; 1999.
  9. Willox AC. Climate change as the work of mourning. Ethic Environ. 2012;17(2):137-64. [Crossref]
  10. Barnett J, Tschakert P, Head L, Adger WN. A science of loss. Nat Clim Chang. 2016;6(11):976-8. [Crossref]
  11. Parkes CM, Prigerson HG. Bereavement. Studies of grief in adult life. New York: Routledge; 2010.
  12. Benetti IC, Vieira ML, Crepaldi MA, Schneider DR. Fundamentos de la teoría bioecológica de Urie Bronfenbrenner. Pensando Psicología. 2013;9(16):89-99. [Crossref]
  13. Chachar AS, Younus S, Ali W. Developmental Understanding of Death and Grief Among Children During COVID-19 Pandemic: Application of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:654584. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  14. Comtesse H, Ertl V, Hengst SMC, Rosner R, Smid GE. Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response? Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(2):734. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  15. Marshall N, Park S, Howden S, Dowd A, Jakku ES. Climate change awareness is associated with enhanced adaptive capacity. Agric. Syst. 2013;117:30-4. [Crossref]
  16. Masson-Delmotte V, Zhai P, Pörtner HO, Roberts D, Skea J, Shukla PR. Global Warming of 1.5 C: IPCC special report on impacts of global warming of 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels in context of strengthening response to climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. Cambridge University Press; 2022.
  17. Gauffin K, Spencer N. Climate crisis and child health inequity. BMJ Paediatr Open. 2022;6(1). [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  18. Nogués-Bravo D, Rodríguez-Sánchez F, Orsini L, de Boer E, Jansson R, Morlon H, et al. Cracking the code of biodiversity responses to past climate change. Trends Ecol Evol. 2018;33(10):765-76. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  19. Obrien LV, Berry HL, Coleman C, Hanigan IC. Drought as a mental health exposure. Environ Res. 2014;131:181-7. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  20. Abel GJ, Brottrager M, Cuaresma JC, Muttarak R. Climate, conflict and forced migration. Global Environ Change. 2019;54:239-49. [Crossref]
  21. Deutsch CA, Tewksbury JJ, Tigchelaar M, Battisti DS, Merrill SC, Huey RB, et al. Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate. Science. 2018;361(6405):916-9. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  22. Marshall N, Adger WN, Benham C, Brown K, I Curnock M, Gurney GG, et al. Reef Grief: investigating the relationship between place meanings and place change on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Sustain Sci. 2019;14:579-87. [Crossref]
  23. WHO. WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19-11 March 2020. [cited: July 28, 2023]. Available from: [Link]
  24. Albuquerque S, Santos AR. "In the same Storm, but not on the same Boat": Children grief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:638866. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  25. Santos S, Sá T, Aguiar I, Cardoso I, Correia Z, Correia T. Case report: Parental loss and childhood grief during COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in psychiatry. 2021;12:626940. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  26. Weinstock L, Dunda D, Harrington H, Nelson H. It's complicated-adolescent grief in the time of COVID-19. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:638940. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  27. Clayton S, Manning C, Krygsman K, Speiser M. Mental health and our changing climate: Impacts, implications, and guidance. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica; 2017.
  28. Shively G, Sununtnasuk C, Brown M. Environmental variability and child growth in Nepal. Health Place. 2015;35:37-51. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  29. Clayton SMC, Krygsman K, Speiser M. Mental health and our changing climate: impacts, implications, and guidance. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association and EcoAmerica; 2017.
  30. Thiery W, Lange S, Rogelj J, Schleussner CF, Gudmundsson L, Seneviratne SI, et al. Intergenerational inequities in exposure to climate extremes. Science. 2021;374(6564):158-60. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  31. Parry S, McCarthy SR, Clark J. Young people's engagement with climate change issues through digital media-a content analysis. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2022;27(1):30-8. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  32. Sheth C, McGlade E, Yurgelun-Todd D. Chronic stress in adolescents and its neurobiological and psychopathological consequences: an RDoC perspective. Chronic Stress. 2017;1:2470547017715645. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  33. Budziszewska M, Jonsson SE. Talking about climate change and eco-anxiety in psychotherapy: A qualitative analysis of patients' experiences. Psychotherapy (Chic). 2022;59(4):606-15. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  34. Salick J, Byg A. Indigenous peoples and climate change. Oxford: Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research; 2007.
  35. Schwartz SE, Benoit L, Clayton S, Parnes MF, Swenson L, Lowe SR. Climate change anxiety and mental health: Environmental activism as buffer. Curr Psychol. 2022:1-14. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  36. Vergunst F, Berry HL. Climate change and children's mental health: a developmental perspective. Clin Psychol Sci. 2022;10(4):767-85. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  37. Dai A. Drought under global warming: a review. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Clim Change. 2011;2(1):45-65. [Crossref]
  38. Peng M, Liu A, Zhou J, Wen S, Li S, Yang T, et al. Association between posttraumatic stress disorder and preflood behavioral characteristics among children aged 7-15 years in Hunan, China. Med Princ Pract. 2011;20(4):336-40. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  39. Yelland C, Robinson P, Lock C, La Greca AM, Kokegei B, Ridgway V, et al. Bushfire impact on youth. J Trauma Stress. 2010;23(2):274-7. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  40. Kar N. Psychological impact of disasters on children: review of assessment and interventions. World J Pediatr. 2009;5:5-11. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  41. Martin G, Reilly K, Everitt H, Gilliland JA. Review: The impact of climate change awareness on children's mental well-being and negative emotions - a scoping review. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2022;27(1):59-72. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  42. Hickman C, Marks E, Pihkala P, Clayton S, Lewandowski RE, Mayall EE, et al. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. Lancet Planet Health. 2021;5(12):e863-e73. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  43. Aruta JJBR. Ecological grief in Filipino youth. J Loss Trauma. 2023;28(3):273-5. [Crossref]
  44. Benoit L, Thomas I, Martin A. Ecological awareness, anxiety, and actions among youth and their parents-a qualitative study of newspaper narratives. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2022;27(1):47-58. [Crossref]  [PubMed]
  45. Kałwak W, Weihgold V. The Relationality of Ecological Emotions: An Interdisciplinary Critique of Individual Resilience as Psychology's Response to the Climate Crisis. Front Psychol. 2022;13:823620. [Crossref]  [PubMed]  [PMC]
  46. Fergen JT, Bergstrom RD, Steinman AD, Johnson LB, Twiss MR. Community capacity and climate change in the Laurentian Great Lakes Region: the importance of social, human, and political capital for community responses to climate-driven disturbances. J Environ Plan Manag. 2022:1-20. [Crossref]
  47. Suarez, P. From Darkness to Illumination: Climate Grief and Resilience in a Sea of Warnings.2020. [cited: July 28, 2023]. Available from: [Link]
  48. Sanson AV, Van Hoorn J, Burke SE. Responding to the impacts of the climate crisis on children and youth. Child Dev. Perspect. 2019;13(4):201-7. [Crossref]