Digital Commons Network^™

Ask Your Doctor About: Prescribing Activism For Eco-Anxiety In Adolescents, Lexi Nutkiewicz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Climate change is an ongoing public health crisis. Efforts to protect future generations' physical and mental health are more urgent than ever. Youth, in particular, are experiencing eco-anxiety, a specific form of anxiety relating to stress or distress caused by environmental changes and one’s knowledge of them due to the climate crisis. This scoping review provides a better understanding of the value of youth climate change activism as a strategy to mitigate eco-anxiety. This review evaluates the current definitions of eco-anxiety, the risk factors for eco-anxiety among adolescents, and considers the benefits and drawbacks of youth activism. To identify relevant …

Star Power, Pandemics, And Politics: The Role Of Cultural Elites In Global Health Security, Holly Lynne Swayne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Celebrities have historically served a variety of roles in society ranging from the inspirational to the cautionary, utilizing their platforms of visibility to promote themselves, their work, as well as their social and political causes. This study focuses on celebrities as activists engaging with global health issues, with particular attention to the form this engagement takes, the publicity it receives in the mass media, and the types of global health issues that receive the most celebrity attention. An interdisciplinary approach drawing from theories of power, social movement theory, agenda-setting, and cultural studies is used to achieve greater understanding of underlying …

From Food To Food Justice: Pathways And Narratives Of Young Food Activists In New York City, Amy Kwan

Dissertations and Theses

With a rise in obesity and other non-communicable, diet-related health problems and the persistence of food insecurity among many vulnerable populations, the involvement of young people in the current, burgeoning food-justice movement has the potential to bring forth transformative changes to our food system and thus improve population health. While much is known about the outcomes of providing opportunities for young people to be actively and civically engaged in their communities, there is a lack of research on the pathways, narratives, and experiences that bring young people into food justice activism.

Through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 25 young food activists …