From Alarmed to Disengaged: Profiles of Climate-Related Psychosocial Orientations and Climate Literacy Among Adolescents

Climate change education (CCE) addresses a conceptually complex, emotionally charged, and politically contested issue. To design effective instruction, it is important to understand the prerequisites with which students engage in climate-related learning. These prerequisites extend beyond prior knowledge to include climate-related psychosocial orientations. However, previous profiling studies have typically considered only a limited set of such orientations and have rarely examined their relation to cognitive climate literacy as a central educational outcome. This study examined whether meaningful profiles of adolescents’ climate-related psychosocial orientations can be identified and how these profiles differ in cognitive climate literacy, climate-related behavior, and policy support. Questionnaire and test data from 632 ninth-grade students in Baden-Württemberg, Germany were analyzed using latent profile analysis. Indicators included climate change beliefs, worry, personal and external responsibility attributions, individual and collective efficacy beliefs, and trust in society and politics. Five profiles were identified: Alarmed (11%), Pragmatic (25%), Distanced (29%), Ambivalent (21%), and Disengaged (14%). The profiles differed systematically not only in their psychosocial orientations but also in all outcome measures. The findings reveal substantial heterogeneity in adolescents’ climate-learning prerequisites. They suggest that CCE may benefit from adaptive, profile-sensitive approaches that address not only cognitive starting points but also varying constellations in students’ appraisals of the climate problem, their agency, and their trust in others to contribute to climate action.