Pre-Conference Workshops
for Early Career Scholars

Climate change affects young people and their families across the world. The exact nature of these impacts, however, differs across world regions. For example, studies show that youth and their families living in LMICs, and particularly in communities that depend on predictable weather for a livelihood (e.g., pastoralists, agriculturalists), suffer the most from climate change. This hands-on workshop led by two members of the Developmental Scientists for Climate Action consortium, will start with brief introductions to the themes of how climate change impacts young people and their families, and how young people’s coping and engagement with climate change can be fostered. It will then invite participants to survey the consequences of climate change on youth in different regions of the world, highlighting both direct impacts (e.g., exposure to extreme heat), indirect impacts (e.g., forced migration after climate disaster), and vicarious impacts (e.g., the sense that one’s future is uncertain or grim). Participants will then be asked to come up with education, communication, and parenting strategies to support young people to cope with and act on climate change, based on their sociocultural contexts. The workshop aims to inform and support participants with an interest in pursuing research on climate change and youth development in their country. Together, developmental scientists can use their expertise to support young people from across the world to cope with and help mitigate climate change.