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Climate Change

Briefing Congress on the impacts of climate change on youth mental health

APA cohosted a congressional briefing with ecoAmerica on the findings of a new report highlighting the impacts of climate change on young people.

Date created: November 2, 2023 2 min read
APA Style leaf logo Cite This Article in APA Style
American Psychological Association. (2023, November 2). Briefing Congress on the impacts of climate change on youth mental health. https://www.apaservices.org/advocacy/news/climate-change-youth-mental-health

Mom and son holding hands

On October 11, 2023, APA released the report Mental Health and our Changing Climate: Children and Youth Report 2023 (PDF, 2.3MB)opens in new window, developed in collaboration with ecoAmerica, to highlight the impacts of climate change on children and young people. The report highlights research demonstrating that climate change is having impacts, starting before birth and potentially derailing the normal development of physiological systems, cognitive abilities, and emotional skills in ways that are sometimes irreversible. 

Senator Ed Markey

Senator Ed Markey

On October 25, 2023, members of Congress and their staff were briefed on the key findings of the report to underpin the critical need for policy solutions to this worrisome problem. Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) started off the briefing by lauding the progress made by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act as the foundation for future actions outlined by the report.

APA’s senior director for the Office of Applied Psychology Dennis Stolle, PhD

APA senior director for the Office of Applied Psychology, Dennis Stolle, PhD

APA’s senior director for the Office of Applied Psychology, Dennis Stolle, PhD, spoke on the specific mental health impacts highlighted by the report. For example, extreme weather events resulting from climate change can interrupt normal fetal development and lead to a greater risk of anxiety or depressive disorder, ADHD, educational deficits, lower levels of self-control, as well as psychiatric disorders later in life. This new report builds on the prior Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Inequities, and Responses reportopens in new window, published in 2021, also codeveloped by ecoAmerica and APA. 

The report highlights several ways individuals, communities, and policymakers can take steps to mitigate these harmful impacts, including:

  • systems-level solutions to tackle climate change at its root;
  • community solutions to increase resilience, meet children’s basic needs, and increase access to mental health care;
  • school-based support and hands-on opportunities to act;
  • screenings by health care professionals to identify climate-related distress and treatment interventions, and
  • parental support, to teach their children about climate change, manage their fears, find hope, take age-appropriate action, and nurture their capacity for resilience.

APA Services looks forward to working with policymakers to make these solutions a reality and address the ever-increasing impacts of climate change. 

For more information, contact Corbin Evans and/or Scott Barstow.

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