Swedish mothers’ and fathers’ worries about climate change: a gendered story

Abstract

The present study considers whether parenthood has an impact on the worries that women and men have about climate change for the next generation and examines whether there are differences between the worries of mothers and fathers. The empirical material is based on a questionnaire-based survey that was administered in 2011 to a random selection of 3500 individuals in Sweden, with a response rate of 31%. The results indicate that parenthood, regardless of the parent's gender, increases an individual's worries about the impact of climate change on the next generation. Fathers are significantly more worried about climate change than men who are not parents; however, mothers do not worry significantly more than women who are not parents. In general, regardless of parenthood status, women worry about climate change more than men.

Safe spaces or a pedagogy of discomfort? Senior high-school teachers’ meta-emotion philosophies and climate change education

“…This dichotomy, where some emotions are seen as bad and some as good, can be problematic from a gender perspective. Studies show that girls/women are more inclined to express worry about different things than boys/men (Barahmand, 2008;Ekholm, 2019;Robichaud et al, 2003), while the opposite often is true for anger (McDuff et al, 2017). Research also indicates that women's worries are seen as signs of a low sense of wellbeing and passivity more often than if men express this emotion (see Conway et al, 2003).…”

Understanding public concern about climate change in Europe, 2008–2017: the influence of economic factors and right-wing populism

“…Most studies find that younger people, females, higher educated people, people with a higher life satisfaction and people living in urban areas are more concerned about climate change (Poortinga et al, 2019;Sohlberg, 2016;van der Linden, 2017). Findings are mixed for employment status and having young children (Ekholm, 2020;Kahn & Kotchen, 2011;Norton & Leaman, 2004;Sohlberg, 2016) At the country level, CO 2 emissions per capita, which is collected from Eurostat, is included as a control variable. Several studies find a negative cross-sectional relationship between CO 2 emissions per capita and climate change concern (Brody et al, 2008;Sandvik, 2008).…”

A Research Agenda for Affective Dimensions in Climate Change Risk Perception and Risk Communication

“…Gender is a recurring focus in literature on affective dimensions of climate risk perception (e.g., Kellens et al, 2011;Berse, 2017;Ekholm and Olofsson, 2017;Du Bray et al, 2019) Two studies focused on exploring the role of parenthood in risk perception (Ekholm and Olofsson, 2017;Ekholm, 2020). Ekholm and Olofsson (2017) found a close tie between affective responses, parenthood, and risk perception.…”

“…Ekholm and Olofsson (2017) found a close tie between affective responses, parenthood, and risk perception. Ekholm (2020) added a gender lens to parenthood, finding that the intensity of negative affective responses (e.g., worry) in men, changed depending on whether they were parents or not; however, this difference was not observed in women. Studies that focused on gender, culture, and social expectations show that these can result in different affective responses to climate risk perception; however, most studies did not provide how this should be considered in risk communication strategies.…”