129 - Parental Concerns about Climate Change in a Major US City

Poster Number: 129
Publication Number: 129.108

Marie E. Heffernan, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; Anne Bendelow, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; Carly G. Menker, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Great Neck, NY, United States; Tracie L. Smith, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; Matthew M. Davis, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Background: It is well documented that changes in climate patterns are already affecting human health and well-being. However, little is known about parents’ concerns about climate change and their family’s future. We examined such concerns among parents in Chicago - a large and diverse urban setting that experiences climate-related weather events and rising water levels.

Objective: To examine parents’ concerns about climate change and its impact on their family, and how concern about climate change is associated with family factors.

Design/Methods: Survey data were collected from May-July 2021 through the Voices of Child Health in Chicago Parent Panel Survey, a longitudinal survey administered tri-annually in English and Spanish via web and phone to parents from all 77 neighborhoods in Chicago. Parents were eligible if they had at least one child < 18 years old in the household. Questions explored the degree to which parents worried about climate change, their concern about climate change affecting their family, and their confidence in their understanding of climate change (Table 1). Chi-square tests and logistic regression examined associations between climate change variables and family demographics. Analyses were weighted to be representative of Chicago parents.

Results: Responses were received from 1,620 Chicago parents (38% Latinx, 21% Black, 31% White and 10% Asian/Other). Two-thirds of parents worry about climate change: 30.5% said they worry “a great deal” and 37.2% said “a fair amount”. Nearly 3 in 4 parents expressed concern about climate change affecting their family: 31.8% were “very concerned” and 39.8% were “somewhat concerned”. Bivariate and adjusted analyses revealed that Latinx parents were more likely to exhibit higher levels of concern about climate change affecting their family (vs. White parents, aOR=2.00, 95%CI: 1.28, 3.10) and parents with some college exhibited lower levels of concern (vs. high school education, aOR=0.49, 95%CI: 0.31, 0.79). There was no difference in concern by parent gender, age, or household income (Tables 2 & 3). Parents who reported they understood the issue better reported higher levels of concern (aOR=7.16 95%CI: 4.80, 10.68).Conclusion(s): Parents expressed a high degree of concern about the impact of climate change on their family. This aligns with growing concern about climate change in the U.S and internationally. These findings suggest that increasing parents’ understanding of climate change may increase their concern about this issue and is a potential strategy to promote action toward collective mitigation efforts, but also may increase parent stress.
Table 1. Climate change items and proportions (weighted) and frequencies (unweighted) for each response option
Table 2. Proportion of children parents who were “very concerned” about climate change affecting their family, by demographic factors