Climate anxiety, pro-environmental behavior, and perceived barriers in university students: analysis of a publicly available dataset from the United States.

INTRODUCTION: Climate change anxiety is increasingly recognized as an important psychological response to the climate crisis among young adults, but its link to climate-related behaviors remains unclear. METHODS: Using the four-factor Climate Anxiety Scale (CAS), this secondary analysis of a public dataset examined whether cognitive-emotional difficulties, functional impairment, personal experience with climate change, and behavioral engagement predicted pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and perceived barriers to climate action in a sample of American university students (N = 435; ages 18-22; 72.6% female). Composite scores derived from five PEB categories and five barrier categories were analyzed with Poisson regression, complemented by binomial sensitivity analyses. RESULTS: Both Poisson models were significant [PEB: LR χ 2(4) = 62.57, p < 0.001; perceived barriers: LR χ 2(4) = 46.32, p < 0.001], and behavioral engagement was the only significant predictor in each (IRRs = 1.049 and 1.035, respectively). In sex-stratified models, behavioral engagement predicted PEB among females, whereas personal experience predicted PEB among males; behavioral engagement predicted perceived barriers in both groups. Binomial sensitivity analyses largely confirmed these patterns, with behavioral engagement the most consistent predictor across outcomes, sexes, and analytic approaches. DISCUSSION: Together, these findings suggest that it is the behavioral and motivational components of the CAS, rather than climate anxiety as a global construct, that are most consistently associated with PEB and barrier awareness. By contrast, the distress-related dimensions showed little independent association with either outcome apart from a small model-dependent association between Cognitive-Emotional Difficulties and PEB in the binomial sensitivity analyses. These findings underscore the value of treating climate anxiety as a multidimensional construct in research and intervention efforts aimed at translating climate concern into sustained action.