Maria Ojala
Title: Senior Lecturer School/office: School of Behavioural, Social and Legal SciencesEmail: maria.ojala@oru.se
Phone: +46 19 303069
Room: L2620
Research subject
Research environments
About Maria Ojala
Maria Ojala is associate professor (docent) in psychology. She has a position as senior lecturer in psychology and is one of the research directors for the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Social Science (CESSS), Örebro University. Maria is also a CSSN Scholar in the Climate Social Science Network coordinated by Brown University, USA.
Maria’s main research interest concerns how young people think, feel, act, learn, and communicate about global environmental problem, with a specific focus on climate change.
More information about Maria's research and collaboration with external actors can be find at this link CV
Current research projects
What role does climate change worry play in young people’s life and learning processes? A longitudinal study about protective and transformational factors and implications for climate change education. Grant from the Swedish Research Council VR. Main applicant/ principal investigator: Maria Ojala. 5 954 500 SEK. 2022 (Aug)-2026
To trust or not to trust? Youth’s attitudes, emotions, and trust in climate change science. Grant from the Swedish Research Council Forte. Main applicant/ principal investigator: Maria Ojala. 3 945 021 SEK. Co-applicant Karin Gustafsso.n. 2022-2025
Prefiguring sustainable futures through food activism: How young people deal with border tensions between the sustainable and unsustainable in everyday life. As principal investigator. Financed by the Swedish Research Council Formas. 3 000 0000 SEK. 2018-2022.
Sedvänjor att undervisa om kontroversiella hållbarhetsfrågor och elevernas lärande. As participant. Principal Investigator is Professor Leif Östman, Uppsala University. Financed by The Swedish Research Council VR. 2018-2022
Recent finished projects:
Mobility, informal learning and citizenship in mobile preschools. As participant. Principal Investigator is Associate Professor Danielle van der Burgt. Financed by The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (RJ)
Young people´s communication with parents, friends, and teachers about global environmental problems: Emotions, coping, and self-efficacy. As principal investigator. Financed by the Swedish Research Council Formas.
Research projects
Active projects
- A wicked problem occupation: exploring how climate change scientists identify and cope with their professional work
- Prefiguring sustainable futures through food activism: How young people deal with border tensions between the sustainable and unsustainable in everyday life
- What role does climate change worry play in young people?s life and learning processes? A longitudinal study
- To trust or not to trust? Youth's attitudes, emotions, and trust in climate change science
Completed projects
Research teams
Publications
Articles in journals |
Articles, book reviews |
Articles, reviews/surveys |
Books |
Chapters in books |
Conference papers |
Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries |
Reports |
Articles in journals
- Jylhä, K. , Stanley, S. K. , Ojala, M. & Clarke, E. J. R. (2023). Science Denial: A Narrative Review and Recommendations for Future Research and Practice. European Psychologist.
- Ogunbode, C. , Doran, R. , Hanss, D. , Ojala, M. , Salmela-Aro, K. , van den Broek, K. L. , Bhullar, N. , Aquino, S. D. & et al. (2022). Climate anxiety, wellbeing and pro-environmental action: Correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 84.
- Ojala, M. (2022). Climate-change education and critical emotional awareness (CEA): Implications for teacher education. Educational Philosophy and Theory.
- Ojala, M. (2022). Commentary: Climate change worry among adolescents-on the importance of going beyond the constructive-unconstructive dichotomy to explore coping efforts-a commentary on Sciberras and Fernando (2021). Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 27 (1), 89-91.
- Ojala, M. (2022). How do children, adolescents, and young adults relate to climate change? Implications for developmental psychology. European Journal of Developmental Psychology.
- Ojala, M. (2022). How do young people deal with border tensions when making climate friendly food choices? On the importance of critical emotional awareness for learning for societal change. Climate, 10 (1).
- Ojala, M. (2022). Prefiguring sustainable futures? Young people’s strategies to deal with conflicts about climate-friendly food choices and implications for transformative learning. Environmental Education Research, 28 (8), 1157-1174.
- Ojala, M. , Cunsolo, A. , Ogunbode, C. & Middleton, J. (2021). Anxiety, worry, and grief in a time of environmental and climate crisis: A narrative review. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 46, 35-58.
- Ojala, M. (2021). Junge Menschen in der Klimakrise: Bewältigung, Engagement und Wohlbefinden. Report Psychologie, 46 (9), 28-30.
- Ojala, M. , Ekman Ladru, D. & Gustafsson, K. (2021). Parental reasoning on choosing the mobile preschool: Enabling sustainable development or adjusting to a neoliberal society?. Early Childhood Education Journal, 49 (3), 539-551.
- Ojala, M. (2021). Safe spaces or a pedagogy of discomfort? Senior high-school teachers’ meta-emotion philosophies and climate change education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 52 (1), 40-52.
- Ojala, M. (2021). To Trust or Not to Trust? Young People’s Trust in Climate Change Science and Implications for Climate Change Engagement. Children's Geographies, 19 (3), 284-290.
- Ojala, M. & Anniko, M. (2020). Climate change as an existential challenge: Exploring how emerging adults cope with ambivalence about climate-friendly food choices. Psyke & Logos, 41 (2), 17-33.
- Ojala, M. (2020). When young people worry about climate change. Tomorrow’s Earth Stewards (online journal Tufts University USA).
- Ojala, M. (2019). Eco-anxiety. The RSA Journal (4), 10-15.
- Ojala, M. (2019). Känslor, värden och utbildning för en hållbar framtid: Att främja en kritisk känslokompetens i klimatundervisning. Acta Didactica Norge - tidsskrift for fagdidaktisk forsknings- og utviklingsarbeid i Norge, 13 (2), 1-17.
- Ojala, M. (2019). Vi måste börja prata om vår klimatoro. Kristianstadsbladet (9 mars).
- Ojala, M. & Bengtsson, H. (2019). Young people’s coping strategies concerning climate change: Relations to perceived communication with parents and friends and pro-environmental behavior. Environment and Behavior, 51 (8), 907-935.
- Boström, M. , Andersson, E. , Berg, M. , Gustafsson, K. M. , Gustavsson, E. , Hysing, E. , Lidskog, R. , Löfmarck, E. & et al. (2018). Conditions for Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development: A Theoretical Review and Approach. Sustainability, 10 (12).
- Ojala, M. (2018). Hopp och oro i en tid av globala klimatförändringar. Ikaros - om människan och vetenskapen (2/3).
- Ojala, M. (2017). Hope and anticipation in education for a sustainable future. Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies, 94, 76-84.
- Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2017). Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community: The role of place identity, social norms, environmental concerns and ecocentric values in public risk perception. Local Environment: the International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 22 (2), 172-184.
- Ojala, M. & Lakew, Y. (2017). Young People and Climate Change Communication. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science.
- Ojala, M. (2016). Facing anxiety in climate change education: from therapeutic practice to hopeful transgressive learning. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, 41-56.
- Ojala, M. (2015). Climate change skepticism among adolescents. Journal of Youth Studies, 18 (9), 1135-1153.
- Ojala, M. (2015). Hope in the face of climate change: Associations with environmental engagement and student perceptions of teachers’ emotion communication style and future orientation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 46 (3), 133-148.
- Ojala, M. (2013). Coping with climate change among adolescents: Implications for subjective well-being and environmental engagement. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, 5 (5), 2191-2209.
- Ojala, M. (2013). Emotional awareness: On the importance of including emotional aspects in education for sustainable development (ESD). Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 7 (2), 167-182.
- Ojala, M. (2012). Hope and climate change: the importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. Environmental Education Research, 18 (5), 625-642.
- Ojala, M. (2012). How do children cope with global climate change?: coping strategies, engagement, and well-being. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32 (3), 225-233.
- Ojala, M. (2012). Regulating worry, promoting hope: How do children, adolescents, and young adults cope with climate change?. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 7 (4), 537-561.
- Ojala, M. (2011). Ungas känslor inför klimatet. Miljöforskning (3).
- Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2011). What lies beneath the surface?: A case study of citizens' moral reasoning with regard to biodiversity. Environmental Values, 20 (2), 217-237.
- Ojala, M. (2008). Den hoppfulla oron?: unga människors engagemang inför den globala miljöproblematiken. Locus (1), 20-32.
- Ojala, M. (2008). Recycling and ambivalence: quantitative and qualitative analyses of household recycling among young adults. Environment and Behavior, 40 (6), 777-797.
- Ojala, M. (2007). Confronting macrosocial worries: worry about environmental problems and proactive coping among a group of young volunteers . Futures: The journal of policy, planning and futures studies, 39 (6), 729-745.
- Ojala, M. (2005). Adolescents’ worries about environmental risks: subjective well-being, values, and existential dimensions. Journal of Youth Studies, 8 (3), 331-347.
Articles, book reviews
Articles, reviews/surveys
- Ojala, M. (2023). Hope and climate-change engagement from a psychological perspective. Current Opinion in Psychology, 49.
Books
- Ojala, M. & Rikner, A. (2010). Att hantera det ambivalenta: unga vuxnas attityder och beteende gällande energisparande i hemmet. Örebro: Örebro universitet (Centrum för urbana och regionala studiers skriftserie 66).
Chapters in books
- Ojala, M. (2022). Hope Through Learning to Live with Ambivalence: Emerging Adults’ Agency Work in the Face of Sustainability Conflicts. In: Margaretha Häggström; Catarina Schmidt, Relational and Critical Perspectives on Education for Sustainable Development: Belonging and Sensing in a Vanishing World (pp. 129-142). . Springer.
- Ojala, M. (2020). Att inkludera hållbarhets- och bildningsperspektiv i socialpsykologin: Om vikten av att ta hänsyn till emotionella aspekter. In: Magnus Boström, Christian Lundahl, Johan Öhman, Humanistiska och samhällsvetenskapliga perspektiv på bildning och hållbar utveckling (pp. 34-43). Örebro: Örebro universitet.
- Ojala, M. (2018). Climate and environment. In: M.H. Bornstein, M.E. Arterberry, K.L. Fingerman, & J.E. Lansford, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development (pp. 367-368). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Ojala, M. & Lakew, Y. (2018). Young people and climate change communication. In: Matthew C. Nisbet, Shirley S. Ho, Ezra Markowitz, Saffron O’Neill, Mike S. Schäfer, and Jagadish Thaker, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication: Volume III (pp. 609-628). New York: Oxford University Press.
- Ojala, M. (2016). Preparing children for the emotional challenges of climate change: a review of the research. In: Winograd K., Education in times of environmental crises: teaching children to be agents of change (pp. 210-218). New York: Routledge.
- Ojala, M. (2016). Young people and global climate change: Emotions, coping, and engagement in everyday life. In: N. Ansell, N. Klocker & T. Skelton, Geographies of global issues: change and threat (pp. 329-346). . Springer Science+Business Media B.V..
- Ojala, M. (2008). Hoppfull oro: en medelväg mot klimatvänlig matkonsumtion.. In: KliMATfrågan på bordet (pp. 187-198). Stockholm: Formas.
- Ojala, M. (2004). Emotioner som deliberativa verktyg: lokala miljökonflikter och känslornas positiva potential. In: Emotionssociologiska uppsatser: "papers" från forskarutbildningskurs i emotionernas sociologi (pp. 73-91). Karlstad: Karlstads universitet.
Conference papers
- Ojala, M. & Anniko, M. (2020). Ambivalence about climate friendly food choices and coping among late adolescents. Paper presented at 17th Biennial Meeting of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA 2020), Porto, Portugal (online conference due to Covid-19), September 2-5, 2020.
- Ojala, M. & Katariina, S. (2020). Chair of Symposium: Young People, Climate Change, and Pro-environmental Behavior. Paper presented at The 2020 Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting (2020 SRA), San Diego, USA, March 19-21, 2020 (Conference cancelled).
- Ojala, M. (2020). How do young people cope with climate change?. Paper presented at Danish Psychological Association’s Conference 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark, September, 19, 2020.
- Ojala, M. (2020). Promoting critical emotional awareness in education for sustainable development. Paper presented at 2nd International Education With Sustainability Conference (EwS 2020), Mid Sweden University, Sweden, (Online conference), August 13, 2020.
- Ojala, M. (2019). Hope and worry: Young people’s engagement concerning climate change. Paper presented at The Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference, Climate change and the future generations, University of Lappland, Rovaniemi, Finland, November 12-13, 2019.
- Ojala, M. (2019). Prefiguring sustainable futures: Food activism and anticipation among emerging adults. Paper presented at Anticipation and Anticipatory Systems: Humans Meet AI, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden, June 10-13, 2019.
- Ojala, M. (2018). Being young in a time of climate change: Coping strategies, communication patterns, engagement, and subjective wellbeing. Paper presented at 25th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD 2018), Gold Coast, Australia, July 15-19, 2018.
- Ojala, M. (2018). Emotional aspects in forest-related education for sustainable development: Young people’s emotions, coping strategies and engagement. Paper presented at 13th Congress of European Forest pedagogy network, TOGETHER – How to involve children and teenagers in decision making, planning and learning, Pudasjärvi, Finland, October 2-5, 2018.
- Ojala, M. (2018). Teachers’ views on emotions in climate change education: Exploring meta-emotion philosophies, promoting critical emotional awareness. Paper presented at 43rd ATEE Conference, A future for all – teaching for a sustainable society, University of Gävle, Gävle, Sweden, August 20-22, 2018.
- Ojala, M. (2017). Ethico-moral dimensions and emotions in climate change education: Exploring senior high-school teachers’ meta-emotion philosophies. Paper presented at International EthiCo Conference: What may be learnt in ethics? Present and future conceptions of ethical competence, Gothenburg, Sweden, December 11-13, 2017.
- Ojala, M. (2016). Critical emotional awareness as a key competence in education for a sustainable future. In: Mulder, M., Wesselink, R., Biemans, H. & Lans, T., Competence 2016 International conference on competence theory, research and practice. Paper presented at Competence 2016, International conference on competence theory, research and practice. Part of symposium: Sustainability competences: meanings, possibilities, and constraints, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, October 19-21, 2016. (pp. 552-557).
- Ojala, M. & Bergstad, C. J. (2016). Symposium: Young people and climate change engagement. Paper presented at 24th IAPS Conference, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, June 27-July 1, 2016.
- Ojala, M. (2016). Teachers’ Meta-Emotion Philosophies and Climate Change Education. Paper presented at ECER 2016, NW 30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research, Dublin, Ireland, August 23-26, 2016.
- Ojala, M. (2016). The existential issues of children and youth when facing contemporary challenges. Paper presented at Existential questions in research and education, Sigtuna, Sweden, October 27-29, 2016.
- Ojala, M. (2016). Young people’s distancing strategies concerning climate change: Relations to engagement, communication patterns, gender, and worry. Paper presented at 24th IAPS Conference, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, June 28- July 1, 2016. Part of symposium: Young people and climate change engagement (Chairs: Maria Ojala, Uppsala University & Cecilia Bergstad, University of Gothenburg).
- Ojala, M. (2015). Anticipation related emotions of hope and worry concerning global climate change: Promoting emotional awareness in education for a sustainable future. Paper presented at First International Conference on Anticipation, Trento, Italy, November 5-7, 2015.
- Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2015). Explaining public risk perception of mosquitoes: The role of social norms, place identity, environmental values and concerns. In: 24th SRA-Europe Conference 15-17 June 2015, Maastricht, The Netherlands Programme and Proceedings Book. Paper presented at The 24th SRA-Europe 2015 conference, Science, policy, and society: Bridging the gap between risk and science, Maastricht, The Netherlands, June 15-17, 2015. (pp. 177-177).
- Ojala, M. (2015). Student perceptions of teachers’ emotion communication style and future orientation: Associations with hope about climate change. Paper presented at European Conference on Educational Research (ECER 2015), Education and Transition. Contributions from Educational Research, Budapest, Hungary, September 7-10, 2015.
- Ojala, M. & Bengtsson, H. (2015). Young people’s coping strategies concerning climate change: Relations to communication patterns with parents and friends and pro-environmental behavior. Paper presented at The 11th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, Groningen, The Netherlands, August 24-26, 2015.
- Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2014). Mosquitoes as a threat to humans and the community: The role of place identity, social norms, environmental concern and ecocentric values in public risk perception. Paper presented at The 23rd IAPS conference, Timisoara, Rumania, June 23-27, 2014.
- Ojala, M. (2014). Socializing emotions in the classroom: Highschool students’ perceptions of teacher induced emotion norms in education for sustainable development. Paper presented at NERA 42nd Congress - Education for Sustainable Development, Lillehammer, Norway, March 5-7, 2014.
- Ojala, M. (2013). Coping with climate change related emotions among adolescents: Associations with communication patterns and environmental engagement. In: Transformation in a Changing Climate International Conference in Oslo 19 - 21 June 2013 : Proceedings. Paper presented at Transformation in a Changing Climate Conference, Oslo, Norway, June 19-21, 2013. (pp. 322-322). Oslo, Norway: University of Oslo, Department of Sociology and Human Geography.
- Ojala, M. (2012). Emotional awareness: On the importance of including emotional aspects in education for sustainable development (ESD). Paper presented at Transboundary learning beyond disciplines. Sustainable Development opening up research dialogues, Umeå, Sweden, October 9-11, 2012.
- Ojala, M. (2012). The Importance of Emotions and Emotion Regulating Strategies in the Process of Learning about Global Climate Change. Paper presented at The European Conference on Educational Research (ECER 2012), Cádiz, Spain, September 18-21, 2012.
- Ojala, M. (2011). Regulating worry, promoting hope: How children, adolescents, and young adults cope psychologically with climate change. Paper presented at 9th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, September 26-28, 2011.
- Ojala, M. (2010). A climate of hope?: Exploring how young people cope psychologically with global climate change. Paper presented at The 12th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, Vilnius, Lithuania, May 12-15, 2010. (pp. 15-19). Bologna, Italy: Medimond.
- Ojala, M. (2010). Hope and climate change: sources of hope and pro-environmental behavior among two groups young people. Paper presented at 21st IAPS conference, Leipzig, Germany, June 27 - July 2, 2010.
- Ojala, M. (2010). How do children cope with global climate change?: Coping strategies, engagement and well-being. Paper presented at The Second International Conference on Coping with Stress, Umeå, Sweden, October 5-7, 2010.
- Ojala, M. (2010). Imagining a positive global future: hope about climate change and pro-environmental behavior among young people. Paper presented at 5th European Conference on Positive Psychology, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 23-26, 2010.
- Ojala, M. (2009). Ambivalent attitudes about household energy conservation: negative and positive strategies for handling ambivalence. Paper presented at 8th Biennial Conference on Environmental Psychology, Zürich, Switzerland, September 6-9, 2009.
- Ojala, M. (2008). Facing ambiguities - transcending dichotomies: Factors promoting an inclusion of global problems into young people’s moral identity. Paper presented at 34th Annual Meeting of the Association for Moral Education, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA, November 13-16, 2008.
- Ojala, M. (2008). The importance of a dialectic relation between positive and negative emotions in promoting social engagement among young people. Paper presented at The XI Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, Torino, Italy, May 7-10, 2008.
- Ojala, M. (2006). Confronting macrosocial worries: worry about global environmental problems and sources of hope among two groups of emerging adults. Paper presented at The 3rd European Conference on Positive Psychology, Braga, Portugal, July 3-6, 2006.
- Ojala, M. (2004). A positive reappraisal of adolescents’ worries about environmental risks: The relation between worry, subjective well-being, values and existential dimensions. Paper presented at The 2nd European Conference on Positive Psychology, Verbania Pallanza, Italy, July 5-8, 2004.
- Ojala, M. (2004). Adolescents’ worries about environmental risks: subjective well-being, values and existential dimensions. Paper presented at The IX Conference of the European Association for Research on Adolescence, Porto, Portugal, May 4-8, 2004.
Doctoral theses, comprehensive summaries
- Ojala, M. (2007). Hope and worry: exploring young people's values, emotions, and behavior regarding global environmental problems. (Doctoral dissertation). (Comprehensive summary) Örebro: Örebro universitetsbibliotek.
Reports
- Ojala, M. (2019). Integrating a sustainability perspective into psychology education: A review of the literature and some suggestions. Örebro: Örebro University (Arbetsrapporter från Högskolepedagogiskt centrum 2).
- Ojala, M. & Lidskog, R. (2013). Mygg och människor vid sjön Björken: upplevelser av myggsituationen och attityder till bekämpningsåtgärder. Gävle: Länsstyrelsen Gävleborg.
- Ojala, M. (2010). Barns känslor och tankar om klimatproblematiken. Eskilstuna: Energimyndigheten (Energimyndighetens rapportserie, ER 2010:31).
- Forward, S. & Ojala, M. (2008). Polisens attityder till trafikövervakning: en jämförelse mellan år 1999 och år 2007. Linköping: VTI (VTI rapport 616).
- Ojala, M. & Höijer, B. (2006). Man vill ju vara en god medborgare, men…: Unga vuxnas ambivalenta attityder till källsortering. Örebro: Örebro universitet (Forskningscentrum Människa-Teknik-Miljö 06-01).