Relationship between Eco Anxiety and Coping Strategies among Youth

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between Eco Anxiety and Coping Strategies among youth. The other purpose of the study is to find out the gender difference on Eco Anxiety and Coping Strategies among youth. Total number of participants was 250 in which 40 were included in pilot study while 210 were approached for main study. The convenient method of sampling was used for data collection. The instruments used in the study were Hogg Eco Anxiety Scale (HEAS) and Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS). Written permission through email was taken from authors before using the scales for assessing the variables. The data was collected through two phases; In phase I data was collected from 40 university students for pilot study for the purpose to check the internal consistency of the study instruments. The reliability of the Hogg Eco Anxiety Scale (HEAS) in pilot study was in acceptable range although the reliability of Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) was low and the correlation was insignificant in the pilot study but improved in the main study. For data analysis the SPSS version 21 was used. Pearson product moment correlation and t-test was applied to check whether the hypothesis were supported or not. The first hypothesis was that there will be significant negative correlation between Eco Anxiety and Coping Strategies. The second hypothesis was that Male will be more vulnerable to eco anxiety than female among youth and the third hypothesis was that Female will be high on coping strategies than male among youth. The results show that there is a significant negative correlation between ecoanxiety and coping strategies. This supports the first hypothesis of the study. The conclusion from t-test analysis shows that male score high on Eco Anxiety scale but the difference is not significant while the other finding is that there is no significant gender difference on coping strategies which indicate that male and female are equal in adapting coping strategies.