Creating a Safe Haven for Children: The Effect of Parent-Child Attachment and Parenting Strategy on Children’s Risk Perceptions to Climate Change

Abstract Children’s climate change risk perceptions including their attitudes and mitigation behaviors, which are crucial to protect themselves from the consequence of climate extremes. However, recent studies have not identified the complex interplay effects between children’s climate change risk perceptions and their family relationships. This study explored the effects of parent-child attachment, parenting strategies as well as their co-influence on children’s risk perceptions to cope with climate changes through investigating a pilot disaster education program in China. Data was collected from 1,710 children aged 8–12 in 45 primary schools in Sichuan Province in 2018. We used Ordinary Least Square Regression and Principal Component Analysis to evaluate the effects of parent-child attachment, different parenting styles and their co-influencing mechanism on children’s risk perceptions. The results found that frequent parent-children interactions had significantly positive effects on children’s risk perceptions, and these effects were more significant in the single-raised children than the children raised by two parents. We further established a conceptual framework for understanding the different parent-child attachment patterns for children’s climate change risk perception based on a mathematical quadrant between frequent parent-child interactions and available attached figures, and found children’s risk perceptions are varied attributed to different patterns of parent-child attachment. Theoretical implications related to climate change and practical implications for family and community mitigation were discussed.