Promoting Subjective Well-Being and a Sustainable Lifestyle in Children and Youth by Strengthening Their Personal Psychological Resources
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe subject matter of the paper is very interesting. The psychological treatment brings important data to the scientific field. The theoretical review gives a glimpse of the state of the question, but it does not go into depth nor does it bring any major conclusions to the subject.
It is recommended that a more in-depth review of the existing literature be carried out (for example, when the authors point out that there are studies that have examined the ways in which people translate their worries into EBP, what are they? Similarly, when they indicate that there are fewer studies on the pro-environmental intentions or behaviours of children and adolescents with reference to EBP, the information they provide is too descriptive.
It is recommended that statements that are not supported by theoretical references be reviewed in depth and if they do not exist, they should be eliminated as they generate expectations that are not fulfilled by reading the text.
The conclusions should be more specific based on the dimensions dealt with in the paper.
Author Response
The subject matter of the paper is very interesting. The psychological treatment brings important data to the scientific field. The theoretical review gives a glimpse of the state of the question, but it does not go into depth nor does it bring any major conclusions to the subject.
It is recommended that a more in-depth review of the existing literature be carried out (for example, when the authors point out that there are studies that have examined the ways in which people translate their worries into EBP, what are they? Similarly, when they indicate that there are fewer studies on the pro-environmental intentions or behaviours of children and adolescents with reference to EBP, the information they provide is too descriptive.
Thank you for taking a close looking at our manuscript! Indeed, it is difficult to go into depth when the literature on the subject under review is so scarce. This is exactly where we wanted to direct readers’ attention. However, we added more information about the studies wherever it was possible.
It is recommended that statements that are not supported by theoretical references be reviewed in depth and if they do not exist, they should be eliminated as they generate expectations that are not fulfilled by reading the text.
Thank you for your suggestions. We followed it and added some references. We also eliminated sentences for which we did not find direct empirical or theoretical support.
The conclusions should be more specific based on the dimensions dealt with in the paper.
You are right. We extended the conclusions by adding the six personal resources.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
This manuscript is a review titled: "Promoting Subjective Well-Being and a Sustainable Lifestyle in Children and Youth by Strengthening Their Personal Psychological Resources – A Review."
Climate distress has been associated with young people, but it is not discussed why this population is sensitive to the issue compared to older populations.
The introduction should include an exploration of how climate change leads to mental health problems in a specific sector of the population, namely young people. It should elucidate the characteristics of this population that make them susceptible to mental health issues due to climate change.
The manuscript emphasizes the urgency of understanding youth in the development of psychological resources to cope with the challenging consequences of climate change, projected to impact them. However, the consequences of this climatic phenomenon are already present. Why are they presented as if they will occur in the future? The importance of intervening is highlighted not only to promote individual sustainable lifestyles but also to foster collective climate activism.
It is important to delve into whether mental health problems in young populations (adolescents) are specific to climate change or arise from other issues, such as political ones. How can we be sure that it is not a generational problem or an issue associated with age? For instance, could the propensity for these mental health problems decrease or disappear as these adolescents grow older?
The review of existing research emphasizes the scarcity of quasi-experimental interventions with high methodological standards that significantly evaluate the strengthening of psychological resources in youth concerning well-being and a sustainable lifestyle. It notes the prevalence of correlational studies and self-reports and the lack of data directly linking psychological resources to subjective well-being and a sustainable lifestyle. However, there is no proposed solution for addressing these limitations in future research.
The manuscript should provide evidence of procedures to promote Subjective Well-Being and a Sustainable Lifestyle and how their effects on mental health are assessed across different age groups. Additionally, it should analyze the impact on children and adolescents compared to the adult and older adult populations.
Author Response
This manuscript is a review titled: "Promoting Subjective Well-Being and a Sustainable Lifestyle in Children and Youth by Strengthening Their Personal Psychological Resources – A Review."
Climate distress has been associated with young people, but it is not discussed why this population is sensitive to the issue compared to older populations.
The introduction should include an exploration of how climate change leads to mental health problems in a specific sector of the population, namely young people. It should elucidate the characteristics of this population that make them susceptible to mental health issues due to climate change.
Thank you for this suggestion. We added a study on the differential impact of climate change on children and adolescents’ health. We also added some information about the age gap in awareness of global warming to the beginning of the article. In the following paragraphs we explained that feelings of powerlessness and helplessness may be reasons for negative emotions, including maladaptive levels of climate anxiety which we distinguished from the adaptive response of climate distress.
The manuscript emphasizes the urgency of understanding youth in the development of psychological resources to cope with the challenging consequences of climate change, projected to impact them. However, the consequences of this climatic phenomenon are already present. Why are they presented as if they will occur in the future? The importance of intervening is highlighted not only to promote individual sustainable lifestyles but also to foster collective climate activism.
You are absolutely right in saying that the consequences of global warming already exist. We had noted that in a short sentence at the end of the first paragraph. Now we have extended this sentence to make this point more visible throughout the article.
It is important to delve into whether mental health problems in young populations (adolescents) are specific to climate change or arise from other issues, such as political ones. How can we be sure that it is not a generational problem or an issue associated with age? For instance, could the propensity for these mental health problems decrease or disappear as these adolescents grow older?
Of course, mental health problems in youth do not arise from negative thoughts and emotions towards the climate crisis alone. However, in the studies we cite in the article, children and adolescents were specifically asked about their emotions and thoughts about global warming or about reasons for their symptoms of anxiety and depression. We elaborate on that in the first paragraph of the article. We can therefore rule out that the reported results are based on the possibility that young people are generally more likely to have mental health problems than older generations. But they are more vulnerable because of their physical vulnerability, their cognitive lack of understanding (when younger), and their growing up in families who may be directly affected by the consequences of global warming.
The review of existing research emphasizes the scarcity of quasi-experimental interventions with high methodological standards that significantly evaluate the strengthening of psychological resources in youth concerning well-being and a sustainable lifestyle. It notes the prevalence of correlational studies and self-reports and the lack of data directly linking psychological resources to subjective well-being and a sustainable lifestyle. However, there is no proposed solution for addressing these limitations in future research.
In the “Implications for research” section we point out that there is the lack of studies that meet the high methodological standards you mentioned. But: you are right, we did not explicitly propose solutions for this issue. We now added a short sentence to this section to the fact that we need quasi-experimental intervention studies and longitudinal randomized controlled trials.
The manuscript should provide evidence of procedures to promote Subjective Well-Being and a Sustainable Lifestyle and how their effects on mental health are assessed across different age groups. Additionally, it should analyze the impact on children and adolescents compared to the adult and older adult populations.
One of the main messages of the article is that empirically supported interventions that promote subjective well-being or psychological resources in children and youth leading to a sustainable lifestyle do not (yet) exist. All studies we could find used only correlational designs. We underline the necessity to develop and evaluate interventions which promote a sustainable lifestyle (and would like to go about this ourselves). However, we also point out that studies on environmental education aiming at increasing knowledge about climate change so far were not able to identify moderators of effectiveness. It therefore has remained unclear which characteristics of the interventions were responsible for their success in changing behavior.
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe article "promoting subjective well-being and a sustainable lifestyle in children and young people by strengthening their personal psychological resources - a review" analyzes an issue of immense social relevance. Furthermore, it is particularly interesting for the scientific community to investigate this reality.
The authors presenta purely theoretical work that is not common in today's high impact journals. However, I do not believe that this contributes to the generation of less valuable work, quite the contrary. We are, in short, before a work that will undoubtedly become a reference in the field of research. And this number gives it great value. In this sense, writing is coherent and interesting. However, I invite the authors to make a small modification to the work presented. On the one hand, it would be appropriate to organize by numbering the different sections of the work; And, on the other hand, the title "a review" can confuse the reader. In other words, it makes us think that we are dealing with a systematic review of the literature, which is not the case. It may be that simply removing that slogan makes the title more responsive to the work presented.
Author Response
Thank you very much for your encouraging feedback! We appreciate your suggestions and added a numbering of the sections and changed the title of the article.
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe article is well written and documented.
Generally in theoretical studies no coefficients from other articles are given. Rather the results of others are commented on through the authors' approach. Of course, the data given is not disturbing but rather makes it difficult to understand for those who are not familiar with statistics.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageGood enough writing.
Author Response
Thank you for your feedback. As you rightly point out, we do not consider the coefficients to be disturbing. Rather, they make it easier for scientists who are familiar with them to interpret the results. And for readers who are not familiar with the data, we have always included size and direction of the effects in the text.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe review of authors is ok according suggestions.
