Before they can name ecological grief : a brief research report of young children’s climate emotions in a small island state

Abstract

Climate emotions research is expanding rapidly, yet children under eight remain less visible than adolescents and adults within the field despite evidence that climate concern may emerge early in life. Such an omission is especially consequential in small island states that are more vulnerable to climate change. This Brief Research Report presents a secondary qualitative analysis of empirical studies conducted in Malta with young children, parents and early childhood educators. Re-examining these datasets through the lens of climate emotions, the analysis shows that young children express early forms of climate worry and ecological loss through concrete, place-based concerns about heat, pollution, animals, the sea and damaged environments, even without adult terminology. Parents and educators recognise climate risks but often struggle to communicate them in emotionally safe ways. The findings conceptualise climate emotions in early childhood as an emergent, relational and co-constructed experience shaped by place attachment, intergenerational communication and opportunities for care-based action. The report further suggests that children’s climate emotions are socially mediated through family, educational and peer contexts. Finally, it argues that conservation social science must integrate young children’s emotional responses to ecological loss, particularly in small island contexts where the impacts of climate change are more pronounced and encountered intimately and daily.