Climate change now part of the family? Relationship between eco-anxiety, collective-efficacy, and childbearing intentions

Fertility rates have been dropping for some time and coupled with increasing rates of anxiety about environmental degradation, the research suggests a possible link between eco-anxiety and childbearing intentions. The literature suggests that eco-anxiety results in two motivational patterns for children; 1. Carbon footprint motivation where people are concerned about the effect of population growth on earth’s resources, and 2. Existential dread motivation where people are concerned about the quality of life of their hypothetical child in a climate changed world. Additionally, popularity within collective climate action groups has spurred interest for the idea of collective-efficacy, and how confidence in our ability to mitigate climate change explains the relationship between eco-anxiety and childbearing intentions. 300 young adult participants (M=24) from the United States of America were recruited through Prolific and instructed to answer an online survey about their childbearing choices. A serial mediation was undertaken in Jamovi. Our findings partially support previous research, revealing that eco-anxiety relates to lower childbearing intentions, smaller ideal family size, and delayed childbearing, partially mediated by both motivations for children. Furthermore, collective-efficacy did not significantly contribute to explaining the link between eco-anxiety and childbearing intentions, hence additional research is necessary to explore alternative factors influencing this association further.