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REVIEW article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1480337
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate Change AnxietyView all 10 articles
Exploring Eco-anxiety among Women Amid Climate-Induced Heat: A Comprehensive Review
Provisionally accepted- 1Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India
- 2All india institute of medical sciences, Guwahati, Assam, India
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Eco-anxiety, the chronic fear of environmental doom, has become more frequent as climate change accelerates, particularly among disadvantaged population. This comprehensive review explores the relationship between eco-anxiety and gender differences, with a particular emphasis on women who experience stress and summarises the existing literature on the psychological and emotional responses to heat-related climate stressors. The current review critically examined a total of 21 articles and synthesised the scholarly literature on eco-anxiety, then it was reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-ScR). Women often face socioeconomic and physiological challenges, leading them to be more vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as extreme heat events. This review was mainly focussed on the climate induced pathways to psychological consequences and gender differences with respect to eco-anxiety which strives to reveal targeted support systems and promote more inclusive climate resilience planning by comprehending the gender-specific dimensions of eco-anxiety. We observed that most of the evidence were from Western countries, hence global research is essential. According to our review, further study is needed to define eco-anxiety with respect to climate induced heat.
Keywords: Climate Change, Heat stress, Women, Eco-anxiety, psychological health
Received: 13 Aug 2024; Accepted: 03 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 KG, P, S, S, PK and Venugopal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Vidhya Venugopal, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India
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