Adolescents, anxiety, and Austria: a 35-year comparison of climate-related fears in science education
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: In secondary biology education, students increasingly confront emotionally charged issues linked to ecological crisis. This mixed-methods study examines how Austrian adolescents (13–15 years) imagine their personal and collective future and how these visions relate to environment-related fear and worry, using a rare 35-year cohort comparison (1989, 2011, 2023). Questionnaire data captured future-related emotions, perceived personal impact, and environmental knowledge. Open-ended prompts and a drawing task elicited students’ spontaneous future fears and visualised future scenarios. Across cohorts, fear of environmental destruction and pollution became markedly more prominent in 2023 than in earlier cohorts, indicating a shift towards environmental degradation as the dominant spontaneously mentioned future fear. Nature featured centrally in students’ future visions; however, when nature was depicted, it was predominantly portrayed as destroyed across cohorts, with this pattern most pronounced in the 2023 cohort. Alongside these concerns, students also expressed biophobias, indicating ambivalent affective relations to the natural world. Girls and students reporting higher environmental concern tended to articulate more emotionally salient, negative visions, and perceived personal relevance emerged as a key correlate of heightened fear and worry. We argue that biology education should integrate affective dimensions explicitly – supporting meaning-making, emotional regulation, and agency alongside scientific understanding.
Source: Journal of Biological Education
Institution: University of Salzburg
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7161175243