Climate and Environmental Change and Mental Health: Exposure, Perceptions, Vulnerability, and Resilience

Climate and environmental change are increasingly recognised as important determinants of mental health and well-being. Extreme weather events, rising temperatures, environmental degradation, pollution, displacement, and disruptions to livelihoods can contribute to acute distress and longer-term psychological consequences. At the same time, people’s perceptions of climate and environmental change—including worry, grief, uncertainty, perceived loss, hopelessness, and psychological distress—may shape mental health independently of direct exposure. Current research highlights substantial differences in vulnerability and resilience across populations, yet important questions remain about the mechanisms linking environmental change to mental health, the role of social and structural inequalities, and how individual, community, and institutional resources influence adaptation. Recent studies have strengthened evidence of associations between climate-related exposures and outcomes such as anxiety, depression, trauma, sleep disruption, suicide and self-harm, psychiatric morbidity, mental health service utilisation, and reduced well-being, while also identifying the potential benefits of social connection, nature contact, preparedness, and collective action. However, the field remains fragmented across disciplines, with limitations in measurement, longitudinal evidence, culturally relevant approaches, and understanding of cumulative and compound exposures. Further investigation is needed to integrate environmental, psychological, social, clinical, and public health perspectives.This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of how climate and environmental change affect mental health across diverse populations and contexts. It will examine the pathways through which environmental exposures and psychological perceptions influence mental health, identify factors that increase or reduce vulnerability, and evaluate strategies that support adaptation, coping, recovery, and resilience. Contributions may also address how inequalities, governance, communication, community participation, and climate action shape mental health outcomes. The Research Topic welcomes research that develops or tests conceptual frameworks, measurement approaches, interventions, and policies capable of responding to the complex and evolving relationship between environmental change and mental health.We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:- Mental health impacts of extreme weather events and climate- and environment-related hazards- Heat exposure, air pollution, ecological degradation, and other environmental stressors- Climate anxiety, ecological grief, solastalgia, uncertainty, hopelessness, psychological distress, and environmental perceptions- Trauma, depression, anxiety, serious mental illness, sleep disturbance, suicide and self-harm, psychiatric morbidity, mental health service utilisation, and subjective well-being- Vulnerability, resilience, and differential impacts across age, gender, socioeconomic, cultural, and geographic groups- The mental health consequences of displacement, migration, livelihood disruption, and conflict- Cumulative, compound, and cascading environmental exposures- Community resilience, social support, collective efficacy, and place-based coping- Nature-based approaches, environmental restoration, and contact with green and blue spaces- Climate adaptation, preparedness, risk communication, and mental health interventions- Public health systems, policy, governance, and climate justice- Longitudinal, multicountry, geospatial, population-based, participatory, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary research methods Topic editors: Julio Torales, Antonio Ventriglio, Joseph El-Khoury, Joao Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85564/climate-and-environmental-change-and-mental-health-exposure-perceptions-vulnerability-and-resilience