Eco-Anxiety Profiles, Religiosity, and Sustainable Nutrition in Turkish Adults: A Latent Profile and Network Analysis

Nutrients. 2026 Feb 6;18(3):545. doi: 10.3390/nu18030545.

Abstract

Background: Eco-anxiety is increasingly viewed as a multidimensional response to the climate crisis, but its links with religiosity and sustainable nutrition behaviors in highly religious settings are unclear. We identified eco-anxiety profiles in Turkish adults; compared religiosity, sustainable nutrition behaviors, and body mass index (BMI) across profiles; and examined the multivariate network connecting these domains. Methods: This cross-sectional online survey in Türkiye included 1105 adults (69.3% women; age 25.8 ± 8.4 years; BMI 23.5 ± 4.5 kg/m2). Participants completed the Eco-anxiety Scale, Duke University Religion Index, and Behaviors Scale Toward Sustainable Nutrition. Latent profile analysis used four eco-anxiety subscales. Between-profile differences were tested using canonical discriminant analysis and Kruskal-Wallis tests. A Gaussian graphical model estimated with EBICglasso assessed network connectivity. Results: Four profiles emerged: High (11.9%), Moderate (54.8%), Affective-dominant (8.3%), and Low (24.9%). Compared with the Low profile, the High profile showed higher sustainable nutrition scores for food preference, seasonal/local nutrition, and food purchasing (all p < 0.05); however, effect sizes were small (η2H = 0.008-0.014), indicating modest practical differences. BMI did not differ across profiles (p = 0.211). In the network, seasonal/local nutrition had the highest strength centrality, whereas BMI was peripheral and weakly connected to other nodes. Conclusions: Eco-anxiety was heterogeneous and showed modest associations with sustainable nutrition behaviors at the group level, without differences in BMI. These preliminary findings suggest that eco-anxiety may co-occur with more sustainable food-related choices, generating hypotheses for future replication.

Keywords: eco-anxiety; latent profile analysis; network analysis; religiosity; sustainable nutrition.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Anxiety* / psychology
  • Body Mass Index
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Female
  • Food Preferences / psychology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Nutritional Status*
  • Religion*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Turkey
  • Young Adult