Building resilience and supporting emotional well-being in climate change education: a systematic review of school-based climate change literacy programmes for children

2025/11/21 by Jessica Jackson, Rebecca Rawson, Rory Colman +1 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Climate Change and Health Impacts

paper · doi:10.1080/13504622.2025.2588268

openalex publication_date 2025/11/21 · openalex created_date 2025/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

As climate change education becomes increasingly urgent, there is growing concern about how such education affects children’s mental health. This systematic review examined whether school-based climate change literacy programmes for children under 18 years incorporate elements designed to build resilience and support emotional well-being. We searched six academic and four grey literature databases for studies published since 2019 Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria, spanning a range of geographical regions and programme designs. Findings indicate that while most interventions (12/16) included components fostering resilience, such as active, participatory learning, real-world problem-solving, and community engagement, only two explicitly supported children’s emotional well-being by providing space to reflect on climate-related emotions. The review highlights a lack of consistent integration of emotional support within climate literacy education. Addressing this is crucial to ensure a more holistic approach to climate change education, safeguard mental health, and equip children for the challenges of a climate-affected future.heir

Citations

• The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Unified Model of Behavior Change
• Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety
• The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
• Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey
• Climate-change education and critical emotional awareness (CEA): Implications for teacher education
• Responding to climate change ‘controversy’ in schools: Philosophy for Children, place-responsive pedagogies & Critical Indigenous Pedagogy

Discussions

• Jess’s systematic review is online: school-based climate change literacy programmes for children. 12/16 included resilience-building (active learning, problem-solving, community engagement), but only [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]