The Intersection of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Eco-Anxiety in Youth: A Narrative Review

As eco-anxiety continues to rise globally, this review aims to understand how this phenomenon will uniquely affect autistic youth. Considering the gap in the literature on this topic, a narrative review was conducted for over 100 sources from both the eco-anxiety and the autism literatures. There is no discernible overlap between these two bodies of literature. The shared themes across the literature point to a perceived loss of control, experiences with burnout, and the detrimental effects of interconnected autistic traits on anxiety. This points to the possibility of a positive feedback loop between the way that eco-anxiety and autistic traits may exacerbate one another. From this, we can deduce that autistic youth will likely struggle with eco-anxiety more than their neurotypical peers, specifically due to their difficulties with Intolerance of Uncertainty, Insistence on Sameness, Cognitive Inflexibility, Hyper Empathy, and Emotion Regulation. Further research is encouraged to collect primary data on how autistic youth might experience eco-anxiety, which will provide great insights for educators, clinicians, caregivers, and parents. In conducting more research on this topic, we can create more inclusive climate action plans that strive for the resilience of all communities in the face of our changing world.