Hope or Anxiety for the Future? Associations of Climate Change Awareness and Hope With Eco-Anxiety Among Nursing...

To examine the effects of climate change awareness and hope on eco-anxiety among nursing students.

Climate change is an escalating global health crisis affecting both physical and mental health, including eco-anxiety. Understanding how awareness and hope shape nursing students' emotional responses is essential for designing effective educational and support strategies.

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 312 nursing students in Turkey between March and June 2025. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed.

Mean scores for the Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale, the Global Climate Change Awareness Scale, and the Climate Change Hope Scale were 18.13 ± 8.98, 70.68 ± 12.87, and 33.86 ± 7.23, respectively. Regression analysis revealed that environmental sensitivity (β = 0.17), membership in environmental organizations (β = 0.18), awareness of health effects (β = 0.13), perceived health impacts (β = 0.09), daily precautionary behaviors (β = 0.19), and higher climate change awareness (β = 0.37) were significant positive predictors of eco-anxiety, whereas receiving climate change education (β = -0.17) and greater hope (β = -0.25) were significant negative predictors.

While higher awareness was linked to increased eco-anxiety, greater hope was related to reduced eco-anxiety, suggesting that eco-anxiety may play a dual role as both an emotional burden and a motivator for pro-environmental engagement.

Interactive, solution-focused, and hope-enhancing strategies should be integrated into nursing curricula to support students' emotional adaptation to climate change.

National nursing education policies should incorporate climate change competencies and psychosocial support frameworks to build a resilient and climate-aware nursing workforce.