Climate Change Concerns and Perceived Intergenerational Mobility

This article investigates how climate change concerns relate to individuals' perceptions of intergenerational mobility. Drawing on newly collected survey data from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden, we assess whether climate-related anxieties, measured through perceived threat, daily-life impact, and reduced opportunity, are associated with perceived changes in social position relative to one's parents. We distinguish between general life evaluations and socioeconomic mobility perceptions, and examine variation across country, cohort, and gender. Results show that individuals who feel that climate change negatively affects their daily life or future opportunities are more likely to report being downwardly mobile, particularly when reflecting on their life more broadly rather than in strictly socioeconomic terms. These relationships are strongest in the United Kingdom and weakest in Sweden. We find limited evidence that the relationship between climate concerns and mobility perceptions differs substantially across birth cohorts. However, several statistically significant gender interactions, particularly for socioeconomic mobility, suggest that climate-related anxieties are integrated into social comparisons in somewhat different ways by men and women. These findings contribute to emerging scholarship linking environmental disruption with subjective well-being, social identity, and perceptions of intergenerational fairness. Our results highlight the relevance of incorporating subjective mobility perceptions into broader understandings of how climate change is experienced. Attention to these symbolic and intergenerational dimensions may inform public communication strategies and complement existing approaches to addressing the social implications of environmental change.