Climate hysteria sets stage for suicidal behavior: Study



Climate alarmists are future-oriented in their activism. It turns out, however, that their obsession may, in some cases, ensure that they will never meet the imminent world they tried to shape with demonstrations, public tantrums, ruinous leftist policies, and vandalism.

A paper by European and Canadian researchers published Friday in the journal Nature Medicine examined the "associations between climate-related hazards and the spectrum of suicidal behaviors, from suicidal ideation to self-harm and suicide mortality."

Citing previous studies, the researchers noted that, unsurprisingly, people directly exposed to extreme weather events may experience an increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Slow-moving albeit similarly devastating environmental phenomena appear to similarly have an emotionally destabilizing impact on some individuals — the Indian farmer, for instance, who is driven to despair by drought, low crop yields, and the prospect of destitution or even starvation.

The study suggested, however, that individuals who are not directly impacted by changing weather patterns have also been observed getting bent out of shape to the point of depression and suicidality.

"Negative psychological responses related to the observed and anticipated impacts of climate change, such as climate anxiety, eco-anxiety and climate-related guilt have also emerged as a potential risk factor for poor mental health and suicide-related behavior," said the study, adding that international surveys have indicated "concern about climate change is associated with feelings of despair, hopelessness, anger, frustration, and guilt, especially among younger populations."

'Exposure to the report had a weaker association with perceived threat and climate change concern among politically right-leaning individuals.'

A study published in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources noted that while so-called climate change "has long been seen as psychologically distant from many people and therefore as a rather non-emotional problem," this view has changed in recent years, partly as a consequence of climate alarmist propaganda pushed in the media and in schools — propaganda that inevitably oversells bad news and overlooks good news, such as carbon emissions' greening of the planet.

"Many people experience climate change and other global environmental problems indirectly, or vicariously, through media representations rather than from direct exposure," said the study. "Exposure to climate change information through the media plays an important role in determining how worried people are about climate change."

A 2019 study found that Norwegians' exposure to an alarmist United Nations report on climate change was associated "with greater perceived threat from climate change and increased climate change concern."

The induction of concern worked particularly well with left-leaning individuals:

Exposure to the report had a weaker association with perceived threat and climate change concern among politically right-leaning individuals, compared with their left-leaning counterparts, and there was no association between exposure to the report and climate change concern among individuals who self-identified as being on the far-right end of the political spectrum.

These manufactured concerns can turn malignant and metastasize.

A 2020 American study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that climate change anxiety is not uncommon, particularly among younger adults, and is correlated with emotional responses — responses that apparently drive some victims of propaganda to swear off having children. A 2021 Lancet-published survey of 10,000 youths ages 16-25 indicated that 39% of respondents expressed hesitancy about procreating on account of climate change.

The study published last week in Nature Medicine identified various pathways from "climate-related hazards to suicidal behaviors."

For those in the camp of the indirectly impacted, such as the Norwegian cohort confronted with the U.N. concern-mongers' report, chronic, vicarious exposure to climate change can result in lowered well-being, which in turn sets the stage for suicidal behaviors.

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Conservatives parents are more likely to raise mentally healthy teens: Study



It may shock some leftists to discover that a surefire way to bolster the mental health of America's youth is not a numbing diet of pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures, or costly psychiatric interventions but rather conservative parenting.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed in a recent report that in 2021, 42% of students indicated they felt persistently sad or hopeless, and 29% signaled that they experienced poor mental health. 22% of students surveyed said they seriously considered suicide, and 10% said they had made an attempt.

Gallup and the Institute for Family Studies launched a study over the summer, looking for the causes of this runaway problem.

Researchers surveyed 6,643 parents and 1,580 adolescents living with a parent through Gallup's nationally representative, probability-based panel and took into account measures of "adolescent mental health, parental demographics, political views, attitudes toward marriage, parenting practices, and parent-child relationships."

A parent's race, ethnicity, household income, and educational level appear to bear little relation to their child's mental well-being. Rather, their parental practices, worldview, relationship with their child, and relationship with their spouse appear to be the greatest predictors of the next generation's cognitive health.

Jonathan Rothwell, principal economist at Gallup and the lead author of the study, underscored in an IFS blog post that the "best results com[e] from warm, responsive and rule-bound, disciplined parenting."

The most impactful parenting practices identified in the study pertain to regulation and enforcement, including setting well-established rules; demonstrating affection daily; setting a regular routine; and authoritatively regulating behavior.

Respondents who indicated it was difficult to discipline their child scored eight points lower on an index that combines youth-reported measures of well-being and mental health with parent reports. Adolescents belonging to parents who agreed that their child "must complete the priorities I set for them before they are allowed to play or relax" alternatively saw a 7.3% increase in likelihood of having good mental health.

Political ideology was found to be a strong predictor of parenting style. According to the study, adolescents with "very conservative parents are 16 to 17 percentage points more likely to be in good or excellent mental health compared to their peers with very liberal parents."

Liberal parents, conversely, had the lowest scores. Only 40% of liberal parents scored above average on the index. By way of comparison, 71% of very conservative parents and 56% of conservative parents scored above average.

According to the data, the biggest political divide in responses manifested in response to the statement, "my child often gets their way when we have a conflict." 80% of very conservative parents disagreed compared to 66% of conservative parents, 64% of moderate parents, 53% of liberal parents, and 55% of very liberal parents.

Rothwell noted, "Conservative parents enjoy higher quality relationships with their children, characterized by fewer arguments, more warmth, and a stronger bond, according to both parent and child reporting."

Beside ideology, parents who disagree with the notion marriage is an outdated institution, agree that marriage improves the quality of relationships by strengthening commitment, and wish for their own children to get married some day appear to have the best outcomes.

When it comes to couples, parents in high-quality relationships with their spouse were found to be roughly 14% more likely to adopt the practices that most benefit adolescents than those who give a middling or poor review of their spousal relationship. The partner-partner relationship also happens to be the strongest predictor of child-parent relationship quality.

Rothwell referenced the work of the late Stanford University psychologist Eleanor Maccoby, intimating she had been on the money in suggesting that children raised in authoritative homes — contra authoritarian or laissez-faire homes — were more likely to exhibit "self-control, social competence, success in school, compliance with rules and reasonable norms, and even exhibit more confidence and creativity."

The Gallup economist further suggested that contrary to the prevailing wisdom presuming medical experts to be the "only people who can prevent illness or help if it arises — often with prescription drugs," parents' actions, judgments, and relationships remain, as always, the key to their teen's mental health.

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