Mapping the global research landscape on climate change and children’s mental health: trends, themes, and inequalities

Abstract

This study provides the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of research on climate change and children’s psychological wellbeing (2001–2025), examining whose children’s experiences are studied and which voices shape this rapidly expanding field through a climate justice lens. We analyzed 1,217 documents from Web of Science and Scopus using co-occurrence, citation, and co-authorship analyses. The field exhibited explosive growth (22.52% annually), surging from fewer than 10 publications before 2010 to 262 in 2025. However, profound geographic inequalities revealed epistemic injustice: the United States (740 publications, 60.8%), United Kingdom (396, 32.5%), and Australia (351, 28.8%) dominated production while Small Island Developing States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and climate-vulnerable regions remained severely underrepresented despite experiencing disproportionate impacts. Nine thematic clusters emerged, with eco-anxiety, climate education, and pro-environmental behavior—reflecting Western individualistic frameworks—dominating discourse, while structural themes addressing colonialism, displacement, and systemic violence remained underdeveloped. Collaboration networks exhibited US–Australia–Europe centrality with limited Global South engagement. This concentration constitutes epistemic injustice wherein nations bearing greatest historical responsibility for emissions while experiencing buffered impacts dominate knowledge production, risking universalization of Western experiences while marginalizing the majority of the world’s climate-affected children. Addressing these inequalities requires systemic transformation: redirecting funding to Global South institutions, diversifying editorial boards, valuing diverse epistemologies, ensuring equitable partnerships, and decolonizing theoretical frameworks. Such transformation represents not merely academic fairness but a climate justice imperative essential for developing knowledge systems that center marginalized voices and inform interventions responsive to realities shaping climate vulnerability globally.