TY - JOUR
T1 - Mental health during ecological crisis
T2 - translating and validating the Hogg Eco-anxiety Scale for Argentinian and Spanish populations
AU - Rodríguez Quiroga, Andrea
AU - Peña Loray, Juan Segundo
AU - Moreno Poyato, Antonio
AU - Roldán Merino, Juan
AU - Botero, Camila
AU - Bongiardino, Laura
AU - Aufenacker, Saskia Ivana
AU - Stanley, Samantha K.
AU - Costa, Tiago
AU - Luís, Sílvia
AU - O’Brien, Léan V.
AU - Hogg, Teaghan L.
AU - Teixeira-Santos, Luísa
AU - Guedes de Pinho, Lara
AU - Sequeira, Carlos
AU - Sampaio, Francisco
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is financed by National Funds through FCT - Funda\u00E7\u00E3o para a Ci\u00EAncia e a Tecnologia, I.P., within CINTESIS, R&D Unit (reference UIDB/4255/2020 and reference UIDP/4255/2020), and within the scope of the projects \u201CUIDP/00713/2020\u201D and \u201CUIDB/05380/2020\u201D.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/4
Y1 - 2024/4
N2 - Background: Eco-anxiety is increasingly recognized as a shared experience by many people internationally, encompassing fear of environmental catastrophe and anxiety about ecological crises. Despite its importance in the context of the changing climate, measures for this construct are still being developed in languages other than English. Methods: To contribute to global eco-anxiety research, we translated the Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale (HEAS) into Spanish, creating the HEAS-SP. We validated this measure in samples from both Argentina (n = 990) and Spain (n = 548), performing measurement invariance and confirmatory factor analyses. Internal consistency of the scale and score stability over time were investigated through reliability analyses. Differences in eco-anxiety across sociodemographic variables were explored through Student’s t-tests and Pearson’s r tests. Results: The four-factor model of the HEAS-SP comprising affective and behavioural symptoms, rumination, and anxiety about personal impact demonstrated excellent model fit. We found good internal consistency for each subscale, and established measurement invariance between Spanish and Argentine samples, as well as across genders and participants’ age. Spanish participants reported higher scores on the affective symptoms and personal impact anxiety factors compared to the Argentinian sample. Also, men reported lower levels than women on the subscales of affective symptoms, rumination, and personal impact anxiety. It was found that the relationship between both age and personal impact anxiety and age and affective symptoms varies significantly depending on the gender of the individuals. Younger participants tended to report higher scores on most dimensions of eco-anxiety. Conclusions: These findings enhance the global initiative to investigate, explore and therefore comprehend eco-anxiety by introducing the first valid and reliable Spanish-language version of this psychometric instrument for its use within Spanish and Argentinian populations. This study augments the body of evidence supporting the robust psychometric properties of the HEAS, as demonstrated in prior validations for Australian, Turkish, Portuguese, German, French, and Italian populations.
AB - Background: Eco-anxiety is increasingly recognized as a shared experience by many people internationally, encompassing fear of environmental catastrophe and anxiety about ecological crises. Despite its importance in the context of the changing climate, measures for this construct are still being developed in languages other than English. Methods: To contribute to global eco-anxiety research, we translated the Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale (HEAS) into Spanish, creating the HEAS-SP. We validated this measure in samples from both Argentina (n = 990) and Spain (n = 548), performing measurement invariance and confirmatory factor analyses. Internal consistency of the scale and score stability over time were investigated through reliability analyses. Differences in eco-anxiety across sociodemographic variables were explored through Student’s t-tests and Pearson’s r tests. Results: The four-factor model of the HEAS-SP comprising affective and behavioural symptoms, rumination, and anxiety about personal impact demonstrated excellent model fit. We found good internal consistency for each subscale, and established measurement invariance between Spanish and Argentine samples, as well as across genders and participants’ age. Spanish participants reported higher scores on the affective symptoms and personal impact anxiety factors compared to the Argentinian sample. Also, men reported lower levels than women on the subscales of affective symptoms, rumination, and personal impact anxiety. It was found that the relationship between both age and personal impact anxiety and age and affective symptoms varies significantly depending on the gender of the individuals. Younger participants tended to report higher scores on most dimensions of eco-anxiety. Conclusions: These findings enhance the global initiative to investigate, explore and therefore comprehend eco-anxiety by introducing the first valid and reliable Spanish-language version of this psychometric instrument for its use within Spanish and Argentinian populations. This study augments the body of evidence supporting the robust psychometric properties of the HEAS, as demonstrated in prior validations for Australian, Turkish, Portuguese, German, French, and Italian populations.
KW - Climate change
KW - Eco-anxiety
KW - Mental health
KW - Wellbeing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85191164518&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s40359-024-01737-2
DO - 10.1186/s40359-024-01737-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 38659072
AN - SCOPUS:85191164518
SN - 2050-7283
VL - 12
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - BMC Psychology
JF - BMC Psychology
IS - 1
M1 - 227
ER -