Measuring planetary eco-emotions: A systematic review of currently available instruments and their psychometric properties

The climate crisis has wide-ranging mental health impacts, but quantifying these is difficult due to the lack of standardized definitions and tools. This systematic review aims to identify and evaluate the psychometric instruments used to measure emotions related to the climate crisis, assessing their characteristics and gaps. Using PRISMA and COSMIN guidelines, we covered articles on self-report measures of eco-emotions. We identified ten scales, four focusing on anxiety and six on other negative emotions. Most instruments were developed in the Global North, and six were multidimensional. The most common emotions that were measured were worry, anxiety, fear, and sadness, and nearly all scales included a behavioural or a cognitive dimension. Of the ten scales, only two have been validated in multiple cultural samples. We identified inconsistencies in the definition of climate-related emotions and observed that the reviewed scales did not measure any positive emotions, such as hope or optimism. This highlights the need for a more holistic approach to eco-emotion measurement.