Climate Change Awareness and Mental Health Impacts among Community College Students in Kathmandu

Abstract

Growing climate change impact on mental health of human beings is a serious public health problem witnessing
everywhere of the universe. The study on mental health of young people is critical for knowledge generation
process. The overall objective of the study is to examine awareness of climate change and its impact on reported
anxiety among community college students of Kathmandu. Cross-sectional explanatory research design is
employed with collecting information from 335 graduate students. Univariate, bi-variate and multivariate
analysis was performed. The study revealed that about 23 percent of students who learned about climate change
from sources other than school, college, or media have reported anxiety symptoms. Multiple regression analysis
shows that climate change awareness and anxiety, students who consider climate change a less significant issue
are about 11 times more likely to have anxiety symptoms [OR=11.4 (5.1-17.9)] than those who view it as very
important in their lives. The study concludes that climate change awareness are critical factor for the self-
reported anxiety symptoms of students of community college. While controlling the social factors, the climate
change awareness are most influencing factors for anxiety prevalence. This suggests that climatic factors need
to be through appropriate strategic approach.