This seminar is part of the Climate Cookies & Coffee series of the Belgian Climate Centre. This is a new seminar series launched by the Belgian Climate Centre to foster knowledge-sharing, collaboration, and interdisciplinary discussion among climate researchers.
For the second edition, the Belgian Climate Centre will welcome Bénédicte Mouton (ULB) who will talk on: 'Eco-emotions in children and youth: A participative study in Brussels and Wallonia'.
In a mixed-method participatory study conducted at the ULB for the Fonds Houtman (ONE), we explored the emotions of children and adolescents about climate and environment issues and their coping strategies. Data was collected among over 1,300 pupils (6 to 18 y-old) and 140 parents in Brussels and Wallonia, using questionnaire, interviews and play sessions at the Museum of natural sciences in Brussels. 10% of children and adolescents reported high levels of eco-anxiety and 70% expressed worries for future generations, nature and animals and populations in disavantaged areas. These concerns, including eco-anxiety, are objective in the current polycrisis context marked by major geopolitical, economic and ecological changes. At moderate levels, this can be considered adaptive rather than pathological, and more a matter of eco-sensitivity or eco-realism in the face of a societal phenomenon than a lack of individual resilience.
