What's in It for Them? A Developmental Science Perspective on Adolescent Climate Activism

Introduction: In recent years, millions of adolescents have joined school strikes to demand climate action from governments and industries, standing in solidarity with young people from future generations and from vulnerable geographical regions (i.e., the Global South). The goal of the present study is to explore adolescents' climate activism from a developmental science perspective, analyzing how climate activism may be rooted in adolescents' developing identity and developmentally salient motives. Methods: Eleven 14–18-year-old Dutch adolescent climate activists (six female, two male, one non-binary, two not disclosed) participated in an online semi-structured interview between September 2022 and 2023. Data were analyzed in NVivo through theoretical reflexive thematic analysis, exploring patterns of meaning across the dataset while embracing researchers' active, subjective, and reflective role in data analysis. Results and Conclusions: We constructed three themes: “Activism is motivated by the desire to make contributions to a just world;” “Activism is an autonomous choice that helps explore and express who I am;” and “Activism makes me feel connected to (some but not all) others.” Taken together, the present analysis suggests that adolescents' climate activism—and pro-environmental engagement more generally—is driven by and satisfies their developmentally salient motives to contribute to a socially just world, to make autonomous choices, to explore and express their identity, and to feel connected to others. As such, our work sheds light on how we may promote and support adolescents' engagement in acts of solidarity to contribute to today's societal challenges, and suggests avenues for further research.