Climate change threatens mental health via increasing exposure to the social and economic disruptions created by extreme weather and large-scale climatic events, as well as through the anxiety associated with recognising the existential threat posed by the climate crisis. Considering the growing levels of climate change awareness across the world, negative emotions like anxiety and worry about climate-related risks are a potentially pervasive conduit for the adverse impacts of climate change on mental health. In this study, we examined how negative climate-related emotions relate to sleep and mental health among a diverse non-representative sample of individuals recruited from 25 countries, as well as a Norwegian nationally-representative sample. Overall, we found that negative climate-related emotions are positively associated with insomnia symptoms and negatively related to self-rated mental health in most countries. Our findings suggest that climate-related psychological stressors are significantly linked with mental health in many countries and draw attention to the need for cross-disciplinary research aimed at achieving rigorous empirical assessments of the unique challenge posed to mental health by negative emotional responses to climate change.
Ineffective emotional regulation and loneliness both play a key role in the development of mental disorders. Divorced individuals are particularly predisposed to loneliness in cultures where post‐divorce relationships are uncommon or stigmatized. The aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on the emotional regulation and loneliness of divorced women in Iran, a culture with strong honor values that condemn post‐divorce relationships for women leading to increased levels of loneliness and social exclusion in divorced Iranian women. The present study was carried out using a pretest‐posttest control group study design. The research sample consisted of 30 divorced women who were randomly assigned to experimental (vs. control) groups. In order to evaluate the variables of interest, the emotional regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and UCLA Loneliness Scale were used. Divorced women in the experimental group were treated using ACT techniques in eight sessions, each lasting 90 minutes. Results of analysis of covariance showed a significant increase in the adaptive emotional regulation of divorced women in the experimental group after the intervention. In addition, there was a significant reduction in the loneliness of divorced women who received the ACT intervention. We find that the ACT intervention improves emotional regulation and reduces loneliness in divorced women in Iran.
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