Climate-crisis psychology shows similar network structure in Argentina and Spain

A cross-sectional comparison of 3,554 adults in Argentina and Spain found that psychological responses to the climate crisis formed a moderately dense and highly stable network, with broadly similar relationships across the two countries. The study examined how eco-anxiety, epistemic processes, coping strategies, psychological well-being and pro-environmental behavior were connected, rather than testing whether any one factor caused another. Researchers estimated psychometric networks using regularized Gaussian graphical models and formally compared them with the Network Comparison Test.

The sample included 1,808 adults in Argentina and 1,746 in Spain. Multivariate differences between countries were also examined with MANCOVA, using self-reported climate-related experience as a covariate. In the network analysis, four functional clusters organized the psychological and environmental variables. Active or adaptive coping and emotional or neutral coping, together with general anxiety and eco-anxious rumination, emerged as the most central nodes, meaning that they occupied especially connected positions within the overall structure.

Emotional or neutral coping had the highest bridge expected influence, a network measure indicating its role in connecting otherwise distinct parts of the model. In this case, it linked epistemic processes with the core of eco-anxiety. The result identifies the strategy as structurally important in the relationship system, but it does not show that the coping approach improves mental health, reduces distress or changes behavior. Because the design was non-experimental and cross-sectional, the network describes associations measured at one point in time rather than temporal sequences or causal effects.

Self-reported climate-related issues showed the largest effect sizes across all psychological domains included in the multivariate analysis. Those effects were greater than the effects associated with country and country-by-variable interaction terms, indicating that the participants’ reported climate-related experiences were more strongly associated with the measured psychological patterns than differences between Argentina and Spain. The analysis therefore suggests that the broader relational organization of climate-crisis responses was comparable in the two populations, while individual experiences related to climate change were particularly salient within that shared structure. The findings point to coping strategies and climate-related experience as important features of psychological responses to climate change, while the network’s similarities and differences across countries should not be interpreted as evidence that one national context causes a particular response pattern.

Subject of Research: Psychometric network analysis of climate-crisis responses in Argentine and Spanish adults

Article Title: Structure of the relationships between psychological and environmental variables in response to the climate crisis in Argentine and Spanish populations: a psychometric network analysis

Article References: Botero, C., Malleville, M. E., Gómez Gallo, D., León, A., Sampaio, F., Bongiardino, L., & Rodríguez-Quiroga Parks, A. (2026). Structure of the relationships between psychological and environmental variables in response to the climate crisis in Argentine and Spanish populations: a psychometric network analysis. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05409-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05409-1

Keywords: climate change psychology, eco-anxiety, psychometric networks, coping strategies, environmental behavior, Argentina, Spain, psychological well-being, cross-sectional study, Structure, relationships, between