From eco-consciousness to apathy: the ECO-SHADOW inventory to assess cognitive and behavioral affect regulation and its role in climate action

Abstract

The climate change crisis continues to have interrelated health, economic, and societal consequences; yet how people psychologically manage these challenges remains underexplored. Specifically, people may have distinct ways of dealing with the realities of climate change, which can impact their wellbeing and influence their engagement in climate action. Thus, the current work aimed to evaluate how people manage their cognition and behavior specific to climate change. We developed and validated a new comprehensive measure called ECO-SHADOW to assess regulated responses to climate change. The existing literature on climate change was integrated with theoretical perspectives from affect regulation literature to generate potential strategies for managing cognitions and behaviors. Based on data collected (N = 566), exploratory factor analysis identified nine affect regulation factors underlying nearly 60 strategies: Eco-consciousness, Conflict, Outcast, Spirituality, Hope, Apathy, Doom, Overplay, and Withdrawal. The ECO-SHADOW inventory is a reliable, valid, and currently the most exhaustive measure of the wide-ranging cognitive and behavioral regulation strategies employed to process climate change challenges, with some being more adaptive toward climate action (such as eco-consciousness and hope), while others being maladaptive (including apathy, withdrawal, doom, or overplay). Further work is needed to examine how affect regulation efforts relate to addressing the climate change crisis. We hope that the ECO-SHADOW inventory inspires future research promoting effective affect regulation and its connections to sustainable climate action.