Eco-anxiety: An adaptive behavior or a mental disorder? Results of a psychometric study

Jean-Arthur Micoulaud-Franchi; Julien Coelho; Pierre A Geoffroy; Marie-Françoise Vecchierini; Isabelle Poirot; Sylvie Royant-Parola; Sarah Hartley; Didier Cugy; Claude Gronfier; Christophe Gauld; Marc Rey

doi:10.1016/j.encep.2023.08.009

Eco-anxiety: An adaptive behavior or a mental disorder? Results of a psychometric study

Encephale. 2024 Feb 29:S0013-7006(23)00173-2. doi: 10.1016/j.encep.2023.08.009. Online ahead of print.

Affiliations

¹ University Sleep Medicine Department, University Hospital of Bordeaux, place Amélie-Raba-Leon, 33076 Bordeaux, France; UMR CNRS 6033 SANPSY, University Hospital of Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France; Institut national du sommeil et de la vigilance, Paris, France. Electronic address: Jarthur.micoulaud@gmail.com.
² University Sleep Medicine Department, University Hospital of Bordeaux, place Amélie-Raba-Leon, 33076 Bordeaux, France; UMR CNRS 6033 SANPSY, University Hospital of Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France.
³ Département de psychiatrie et d'addictologie, GHU Paris Nord, DMU Neurosciences, hôpital Bichat - Claude-Bernard, AP-HP, 75018 Paris, France; GHU Paris - Psychiatry & Neurosciences, 1, rue Cabanis, 75014 Paris, France; Université Paris Cité, NeuroDiderot, Inserm, 75019 Paris, France.
⁴ Centre du sommeil et de la vigilance, hôpital Hôtel Dieu, AP-HP, Paris, France; Sorbonne Paris Cité, université Paris Descartes, Paris, France; Institut national du sommeil et de la vigilance, Paris, France.
⁵ Service de psychiatrie adulte, hôpital Fontan, CHU de Lille, Lille, France; Institut national du sommeil et de la vigilance, Paris, France.
⁶ Réseau Morphée, Garches, France.
⁷ Réseau Morphée, Garches, France; EA 4047, Sleep Center, Hôpital Raymond Poincaré, AP-HP, université de Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines, Garches, France.
⁸ University Sleep Medicine Department, University Hospital of Bordeaux, place Amélie-Raba-Leon, 33076 Bordeaux, France; Institut national du sommeil et de la vigilance, Paris, France.
⁹ Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), Neurocampus, Waking Team, Inserm UMRS 1028, CNRS UMR 5292, Lyon, France; Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1, université de Lyon, 69000 Lyon, France; Institut national du sommeil et de la vigilance, Paris, France.
¹⁰ Department of Psychiatry, University of Grenoble, avenue du Maquis du Grésivaudan, 38000 Grenoble, France; Institut des sciences cognitives Marc-Jeannerod, UMR 5229 CNRS & université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France.
¹¹ Institut national du sommeil et de la vigilance, Paris, France.

PMID: 38429155
DOI: 10.1016/j.encep.2023.08.009

Abstract

Objective: Eco-anxiety is a complex construct that has been created to grasp the psychological impact of the consequences of global warming. The concept needs a reliably valid questionnaire to better evaluate its impact on the risk of anxiety and depressive disorders. The Eco-Anxiety Questionnaire (EAQ-22) evaluates two dimensions: 'habitual ecological anxiety' and 'distress related to eco-anxiety'. However, a version in French, one of the world's widely spoken languages, was until now lacking. We aimed to translate and validate the French EAQ-22 and to evaluate the prevalence of the level of the two dimensions of eco-anxiety and the relationship with anxiety and depressive symptoms in a representative adult sample of the French general population.

Methods: This study was performed under the auspices of the Institut national du sommeil et de la vigilance (INSV). Participants (18-65 years) were recruited by an institute specialized in conducting online surveys of representative population samples (quota sampling). Two native French speakers and two native English speakers performed a forward-backward translation of the questionnaire. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD) was administered to assess anxiety (HAD-A) and depressive (HAD-D) symptoms and for external validity. Internal structural validity and external validity were analysed.

Results: Evaluation was performed on 1004 participants: mean age 43.47 years (SD=13.41, range: [19-66]); 54.1% (n=543) women. Using the HAD, 312 (31.1%) patients had current clinically significant anxiety symptoms (HAD-A>10) and 150 (14.9%) had current clinically significant depressive symptoms (HAD-D>10). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.934, indicating very good internal consistency. Correlation between EAQ-22 and HAD scores was low (r[1004]=0.209, P<0.001), 'habitual ecological anxiety' was correlated less with HAD-A and HAD-D than 'distress related to eco-anxiety', indicating good external validity.

Conclusion: This study validates the French EAQ-22 and paves the way for using the EAQ-22 as a global tool for assessing eco-anxiety. Further prospective studies are now required to better evaluate the impact of eco-anxiety on the occurrence of anxiety and depressive disorder.

Keywords: Anxiety; Anxiété; Assessment; Depression; Dépression; Eco-anxiety; Eco-anxiété; French population; Population française; Questionnaire; Évaluation.