Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology

First Advisor

Elliott Lawless, PsyD

Second Advisor

Nahanni Freeman, PhD

Third Advisor

Amber Nelson, PsyD

Abstract

Climate change remains a polarized issue in the United States despite broad scientific consensus. The present study examined how specific variables within political ideology (social and economic conservatism) and religiosity (belief, praxis, and morality) relate to climate change belief among undergraduate students at a private Christian university. Participants (N = 130) completed measures of climate change perceptions, multidimensional religiosity, and social and economic conservatism. Correlational analyses showed medium-sized, negative relationships between climate change belief and both social and economic conservatism, with no significant difference between the two domains. This finding suggests that political conservatism may operate as a unified construct in this population. Belief and praxis showed small, negative relationships with climate change belief, and morality demonstrated no significant relationship. A stepwise regression indicated that economic conservatism negatively predicted climate belief and that morality positively predicted it. Regression analysis also found that age and ethnicity were not significant predictors. The findings highlight the significance of ideological and religious frameworks in shaping environmental attitudes and suggest that a moral framework in climate change messaging may be effective in conservative Christian contexts. Future research should recruit more diverse samples and evaluate the distinctiveness of social and economic conservative measures, given the large relationship observed between the constructs.

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