Communicating the Connections Between Climate Change and Early Childhood

About the Project

What surrounds us shapes us. The conditions in a child’s developmental environment, including the full range of experiences and exposures they encounter in the places where they live, grow, play, and learn, influence a wide range of outcomes for children and the adults they become, including their lifelong physical and mental health. Climate change is affecting developmental environments in numerous ways, including by raising temperatures, causing more frequent wildfires, and leading to more powerful storms. It is critical that we not only understand how climate change is changing developmental environments, but also that we communicate effectively about these issues, along with the actionable opportunities for solutions.

The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, in collaboration with the FrameWorks Institute and the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE), has launched a new research project designed to investigate the most effective strategies for communicating about the many ways that climate change is affecting early childhood development. Leveraging the latest science and the diverse expertise of a multidisciplinary advisory board (details below), the goal of this project is to develop science-informed, evidence-based framing and narrative strategies that can be used broadly by actors working at the intersection of climate change and early childhood development to expand understanding of this topic and build critical demand for policies and interventions that support early development and lifelong health in the context of a changing climate.

Over the course of the project, we will be investigating this through a range of methodologies, including literature reviews and media content analyses, along with in-depth interviews, focus groups, and survey experiments with a cross section of the United States public.

Stay tuned to this space, as well as our newsletter and social channels, in the coming months for updates as the project progresses.

About the Advisory Board

The Advisory Board brings together a group of individuals with diverse expertise and deep interest in climate change, environmental justice, early childhood development, and other related issues who will help guide this project and contribute to its impact. As the projects’ research moves forward, the Advisory Board will play a key role in interpreting findings, shaping emerging directions, and mobilizing final framing recommendations and communications strategies.

Advisory Board Members

Jammie Albert: Program Director for Early Childhood Success, National League of Cities

Leah Austin: President and CEO, National Black Child Development Institute

Elizabeth Bechard: Parent Advocate; Senior Policy Analyst, Moms Clean Air Force

Margot Brown: Senior Vice President, Justice & Equity, Environmental Defense Fund

Mark Del Monte: CEO/Executive Vice President, American Academy of Pediatrics

Elliot Haspel: Senior Fellow, Capita

Susan Joy Hassol: Director, Climate Communication

Michelle Kang: Chief Executive Officer, National Association for the Education of Young Children

Joan Lombardi: Senior Fellow, Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, Georgetown University (Bio) | Adjunct Professor and Senior Advisor, Stanford Center on Early Childhood (Bio)

Patti Miller: CEO, Too Small to Fail

Kari Nadeau: Chair of the Department of Environmental Health and John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Lisa Patel: Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Stanford Medicine

Jaclyn Roessel: President and CEO, Grownup Navajo

About the FrameWorks Institute

The FrameWorks Institute helps progressive organizations and movements frame their communications to shift discourse, deepen understanding of issues, and advance policy change. The interdisciplinary FrameWorks team conducts empirical research to investigate patterns in public thinking about social issues and how effective framing can shift and broaden the way we see the world—and how we can make it better. To learn more visit https://www.frameworksinstitute.org/.

About Harvard Chan C-CHANGE

The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) increases public awareness of the health impacts of climate change and uses science to make it personal, actionable, and urgent. The Center leverages Harvard’s cutting-edge research to inform policies, technologies, and products that reduce air pollution and other causes of climate change. By making climate change personal, highlighting solutions, and emphasizing the important role we all play in driving change, Harvard Chan C-CHANGE puts health outcomes at the center of climate actions. To learn more visit https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/.