Predicting Pro-environmental Behaviours with Locus of Control and Ecoanxiety

Sammanfattning: The climate crisis is not only affecting the physical world, but individuals’ mental health. The concept of ecoanxiety has reached major attention in the public discourse and more individuals report psychological consequences as a result of climate change. The call for action is urgent, but what are individuals doing to prevent further harm to the planet? Does the experience of ecoanxiety leave them passive or active in their response to act constructively, i.e. engage in pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs)? Could personality factors, more specifically Locus of Control (LOC), affect individuals’ behaviour? The current study investigated LOC and ecoanxiety as predictors for engagement in PEBs, while controlling for trait anxiety. 351 university students in Denmark and Sweden were conveniently sampled to participate and the data was collected through an online survey. The sample included 242 females, 106 males and 3 who had labeled their sex as other; their age ranged from 19-45. Several multiple regressions were conducted for the purpose of investigating the variables’ effect on engagement in PEBs, where ecoanxiety was shown to be the only significant predictor (beta = .616, p <.001).