Kailie Drumm’s Three Minute Thesis
Understanding the Lived Experience of Adolescents Concerned about Climate Change
Climate change’s effect on health is now well understood, including increased heat-related illnesses, a sharp rise in vector-borne diseases, and displacement due to natural disasters. What is less understood is the direct and indirect effects of climate change on mental health. Particularly, there is limited understanding surrounding the mental health implications of climate change in children and adolescents, who will disproportionately bear the burden of climate change. My dissertation seeks to understand the experience of concern about climate change in adolescents through phenomenological interviewing and analysis. With a team of nurses, mental health professionals, and child experts, we will discover the nature of being as it relates to climate change concerns and how this affects mental wellbeing. It is the aim of this dissertation to uncover, through participant-led stories, the holistic nature of this concern and its effects, and then utilize these findings to inform nursing and multidisciplinary practices to support this vulnerable population.
Kailie’s research analyzes the intersection of adolescent psychological development, mental health, and the existential threat of climate change. Her current projects include uncovering the dynamic and multi-faceted ways in which adolescents experience concern about climate change and translating that into nursing and multidisciplinary education, with the critical aim of mitigating potential adverse mental health outcomes and supporting the world’s youth.
Outside of academia, Kailie practices as a registered nurse in an underserved community and teaches nursing at her local community college. She is an avid outdoorswoman who enjoys reading, mountain biking, hiking, backpacking, paddleboarding, and other non-carbon emitting activities with her family.