![What is a child's understanding of climate change: researchers seek answers What is a child's understanding of climate change: researchers seek answers](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/69fUThMh3V6mENHE7Nwkb5/1a48a69c-e993-4a8b-8ed5-4fa602572e3b.jpeg/r0_0_1694_1261_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
School students have often been at the forefront of organising marches and raising awareness of their concerns about climate change and its impact on their futures.
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However, most of those students are likely to be in high school, and its the lack of knowledge on what younger children think about climate change and the future of the planet that is the basis of new Australian research.
The aim of the research is to hear from students, in their final years of primary school, on what they know about climate change and its impact on the environment and if this understanding is causing them to develop 'eco-anxiety'.
And what is eco-anxiety? It is described 'as the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm that comes from observing the seemingly irrevocable impact of climate change and the associated concern for one's future and that of next generations' by the American Psychology Association.
Sashka Samarawickrama, a PhD Candidate (Clinical Psychology) at Monash University's Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, who is part of the team conducting the research said there were many studies on young people aged 16-25 years and what they think about climate change.
![Sashka Samarawickram PhD Candidate (Clinical Psychology) at Monash University's Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health. Picture supplied Sashka Samarawickram PhD Candidate (Clinical Psychology) at Monash University's Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/69fUThMh3V6mENHE7Nwkb5/ba80bc08-ab65-4410-94f6-8f93b563b857.jpeg/r0_0_750_931_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"But there is very little knowledge on what younger children think. In particular when they become aware of the issues and at what stage do they develop anxiety or not about their future due to the impacts of climate change," she said.
![What is a child's understanding of climate change: researchers seek answers What is a child's understanding of climate change: researchers seek answers](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/69fUThMh3V6mENHE7Nwkb5/44eb636d-7b96-4270-9cf9-125160e2fabf.jpg/r0_0_1080_1080_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
She said given the gap in the research knowledge they were conducting a research project to better understand children's worries about the environmental crisis and eco-anxiety.
The study involves children completing two online surveys, and parents/caregivers completing one online survey. This study has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee [38204].
"We are particularly interested in looking at eco-anxiety in children aged between 9-12 years old. And we would love to hear from children across a diverse range of regions and towns from metropolitan to regional areas like the Hunter Valley," she said.
"Climate change is part of the school curriculum but what students understand about its impacts on them and their future is of great interest to us," she said.
The parents/caregiver survey also asks them about their own awareness of climate change and its impacts," she said.
Link for parents to sign up to the study: https://redcap.link/0krberet