Investigation of the relationship between university students' eco-anxiety level and future orientation, hope and psychological well-being levels

This study aimed to examine the relationship between university students' eco-anxiety levels and their future orientation, hope and psychological well-being levels. In this context, eco-anxiety level was taken as the independent variable and future orientation, hope and psychological well-being levels were taken as the dependent variables. For this purpose, a study was conducted in the relational survey model. The research was conducted with 602 university students, 393 female and 209 male, studying in the Education Faculties of different private and foundation universities in Ankara in the 2024-2025 academic year. In the study, data were obtained by using the Eco-Anxiety Scale, the Dispositional Hope Scale, the Psychological Well-Being Scale, the Attitude Towards the Future Scale and the Personal Information Form. An Independent Sample T-Test was conducted for gender and age variables to determine whether the scores of the students on the Eco-Anxiety Scale differed significantly according to the sociodemographic variables included in the personal information form. One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to examine whether eco-anxiety levels differed significantly according to variables such as perceived socioeconomic level, place of residence where most of one's life is spent, geographic region where most of one's life is spent, time spent on weekly social media, time spent following weekly news, and participation in environmentally friendly behaviors. Simple linear regression analysis was used to determine whether university students' eco-anxiety levels significantly predicted their hope, psychological well-being and future. According to the results obtained, as a result of examining the eco-anxiety level according to demographic variables, no significant difference was found between the eco-anxiety level and the perceived socioeconomic level, while a significant difference was found between age, gender, the settlement where most of one's life is spent, the geographical region where most of one's life is spent, the time spent on weekly social media, the time spent following weekly news, and the status of participating in environmentally friendly behaviors. It was concluded that eco-anxiety is a statistically significant predictor of future orientation, hope and psychological well-being. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and suggestions for the future were presented.