Anger as a Bridge: Understanding How Climate Change Anxiety Shapes Well-Being.

BACKGROUND: Climate change anxiety is increasingly recognized as a mental health concern, with emerging evidence linking it to poorer well-being and highlighting the need to clarify its cognitive-emotional and functional dimensions. METHODS: The current research explored the relationship between climate anxiety and mental health outcomes, using a large nationally representative sample. RESULTS: The results revealed that climate change anxiety was positively related to negative affect and anger. Climate anxiety cognitive impairment was positively related to positive affect and life satisfaction. However, climate anxiety functional impairment showed a different pattern, being negatively associated with life satisfaction at the bivariate level but no longer remaining a significant predictor once generalized anxiety state and trait were included in the model. Climate change anxiety showed moderate positive correlations with generalized anxiety, both state and trait. Finally, in exploratory cross-sectional mediation models, anger statistically accounted for part of the association between climate change anxiety and both negative affect and life satisfaction, but not positive affect. CONCLUSION: This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the psychological processes involved in climate anxiety and its relation with subjective well-being.