The Next Generation Calls to Action: Exploring Adolescents' Climate Change Attitudes, Knowledge, and Actions

Dr Ashling Bourke is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Human Development at the Institute of Education and the Lead Investigator on the NextGen project. Her research and teaching interests include the processes that impact on child and adolescent wellbeing, children's rights, and understanding climate change using a psychological lens. 

Dr Kristin Hadfield is an Associate Professor in Psychology at Trinity College Dublin and a co-investigator on the NextGen project, which examines attitudes toward climate change among Irish adolescents. Her research investigates multi-level influences on young people’s mental health and wellbeing, spanning proximal factors such as family and school to more distal influences including climate change, extreme climatic events, and environmental exposures. She has published widely on these topics, using longitudinal and participatory methods to understand how children and adolescents can best be supported in contexts of adversity. 

Dr Benjamin Mallon is Assistant Professor in Geography Education in the Institute of Education, Dublin City University and is a co-Investigator on the NextGen project. Ben is co-director of the DCU Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education and is a member of the DCU Institute for Climate and Society. Ben’s research explores the role of education practices, systems and policies in supporting children and young people’s learning about and participation in societal responses to global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and conflict.

Dr Rowan Oberman is Assistant Professor in the School of Stem Education Innovation and Global Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education. Rowan is a co-Investigator on the NextGen project. Her areas of research interest include climate change education, children’s rights and picturebooks. Her doctoral study focusses on the use of picturebooks in inquiry-based approaches to climate change education. 

Dr Azza Warraitch is a Research Fellow at Trinity Centre for Global Health. Her PhD research was focused on the involvement of adolescents in health research using evidence syntheses, qualitative and participatory methods. Before her doctoral studies, Azza earned an MPhil in Applied Psychology and worked as a research coordinator and junior research fellow with non-profit organisations in Pakistan on interventions to promote the mental health of school-going adolescents in rural Pakistan. 

Salam Jabbour is a PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin, with a background in clinical psychology. Salam's research focuses on the influence of sociopolitical structure on individual and collective well-being. She has a particular interest in social determinants of mental health, community-based approaches to psychosocial well-being, and participatory approaches.  

I'm Aleksander Sokólski, currently a psychology undergrad student trying to involve myself in research that can impact society in tangible ways. As the youth co-researcher I do my best to make the participants feel welcome in the project and represent them at the stage where their contributions are ran through the complex machinery of science 

Hi! My name is Estelle, I am a second-year psychology student at Trinity College Dublin and I work as a youth co-researcher on the NextGen project. My role in this project is to ensure its design is shaped by young people for young people, so as to bridge the gap between our personal experiences and the research process. This project is incredibly rewarding both for the reason above and because it permits me to address climate change with the tools that psychology offers.