A Follow up on the Continuum Theory of Eco-Anxiety: Analysis of the Climate Change Anxiety Scale Using Item Response Theory among French Speaking Population

Abstract

The mental health impact of the environmental crisis, particularly eco-anxiety, is a growing research topic whose measurement still lacks consensus. This study aims to use item response theory (IRT) to gain a deeper understanding of the constructs measured by existing questionnaires. To conduct this review, we applied the graded response model with the help of the MIRT package in R on open-access data from the short French version of the Climate Change Anxiety Questionnaire, which measures cognitive–emotional impairment and functional impairment. The models tested in this study are the one, two, and three-factor models, and the bifactor model. After model selection, the psychometric properties of the selected model were tested. Our results suggest that the unidimensional model seems to be the most appropriate for measuring eco-anxiety. The item difficulty parameter extracted from the IRT enabled us to discuss the severity levels of the items comprising this tool. The Climate Change Anxiety Questionnaire appears to be more appropriate for measuring moderate to severe eco-anxiety. Avenues for improving this questionnaire and the measurement of eco-anxiety in general are then discussed.