PNAS And Lancet Studies Show Rage, Depression, Worry Among Young; 20% Of Americans 16-24 Afraid To Have Kids
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Now, researchers in peer-reviewed studies are putting empirical meat on those anecdotal bones. In one April 2025 paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists surveyed nearly 3,000 young people in the U.S. aged 16-to-24 and found that approximately 20% of them were afraid to have children—worrying about bringing a new generation into a steadily warming world. That figure jumped to over 30% among young people who had experienced a severe-weather event first hand.
An earlier 2021 study in The Lancet surveyed 10,000 16- to 25-year-olds in 10 countries, and came up with even more concerning results. Overall, nearly 60% of respondents described themselves as very or extremely worried about climate change and nearly 85% were at least moderately concerned. More than 45% of the total said that those feelings adversely affected their daily functioning. Fully 75% said that they think the future is frightening and 83% said that they believe the adults in charge have failed to take care of the planet—leaving the problem to the generations to follow.
“I think it’s different for young people,” said one 16-year-old cited in the study. “For us, the destruction of the planet is personal.” “It’s the people who have contributed the least to the problem who are facing the challenge of dealing with the consequences,” says Emma Lawrance, Climate Care Center lead at Imperial College London and a co-author of the PNAS paper. “They’ve been let down by the adults who were supposed to keep them safe.”
If kids are being hit especially hard by the ravages of climate change it’s in part because of one of the great gifts of youth—a nimble, pliable, very plastic brain. That can be handy when it comes to learning new things and acquiring new skills, but it carries a potential price in mental health, because a nimble brain is also an impressionable one. According to Lawrance, the large majority of mental health problems—up to 75%—begin before the age of 24. The 2021 Lancet study surveyed its 10,000 subjects on a whole range of emotional metrics and found that they were indeed being hit hard—and early in life—by climate-related distress. Two-thirds of them reported that they were feeling sadness related to climate change; nearly 51% described themselves as feeling helpless; 62% were anxious; 67% were afraid; and just 31% said they were optimistic that the climate problem could be solved. Significantly, another 57% said they were angry over the mess the world has become.
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https://time.com/7280989/climate-anxiety-mental-health-young-people/
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