Educational interventions for environmentally oriented life projects: a bibliometric analysis of global trends

The intensification of the climate crisis and the rise of eco-anxiety among young people contrast with the still partial integration of life projects, environmental citizenship and education for sustainable development within education systems. The objective was to describe and quantitatively analyse the evolution of research on educational interventions aimed at developing environmentally focused life projects, identifying temporal, geographical and thematic patterns, collaboration networks and influential sources. Bibliometric mapping was applied in Scopus using a trilingual search equation, with a search conducted on 14 November 2025, which retrieved 1071 documents published between 1963 and 2025 in 699 sources, processed with Bibliometrix, VOSviewer, Lotka's Law and Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy RPYS. The results show an annual growth rate of 6.33%, 3478 authors with 3.47 co-authors per article and 16.62% international collaboration, leadership by the United States 304 documents, the United Kingdom 101 and Australia 64, a predominance of social sciences 29.6%, medicine 14.8% and psychology 12.9%, and a concentration in journals such as Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of Youth and Adolescence and Sustainability Switzerland. The field connects psychological wellbeing, future orientation and sustainability, although it still shows limited attention to climate change and education for sustainable development, and it needs to expand networks with the Global South to design contextualised interventions that strengthen youth agency and environmentally responsible life projects.

气候危机不断升级，年轻人的生态焦虑（eco-anxiety）愈发凸显，而教育体系中生命规划、环境公民教育与可持续发展教育的融合却仍显片面，二者形成鲜明反差。本研究旨在描述并定量分析聚焦培育环保型生命规划的教育干预相关研究的演进历程，识别其时间、地理与主题维度的分布特征、合作网络及高影响力文献来源。本研究依托斯高帕斯（Scopus）数据库，采用三语检索式开展文献计量图谱分析，检索工作于2025年11月14日完成，共检索得到1963年至2025年间发表于699个文献源的1071篇文献，并通过Bibliometrix、VOSviewer、洛特卡定律（Lotka's Law）及文献出版年份光谱法（Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy，简称RPYS）对数据进行处理。研究结果显示，该领域文献年增长率达6.33%，共有3478位作者，单篇文献平均合作作者数为3.47人，国际合作占比16.62%；发文量方面，美国以304篇位居首位，其次为英国（101篇）与澳大利亚（64篇）；学科分布上，社会科学占比29.6%、医学占比14.8%、心理学占比12.9%，占据主导地位；发文期刊则集中于《心理学前沿》（Frontiers in Psychology）、《青年与青春期期刊》（Journal of Youth and Adolescence）及《瑞士可持续性》（Sustainability Switzerland）等刊物。当前研究领域已将心理福祉、未来导向与可持续发展相联结，但对气候变化及可持续发展教育的关注仍显不足；未来需拓展与全球南方（Global South）的合作网络，设计贴合本土情境的教育干预方案，以强化年轻人的主体能动性及环保责任型生命规划。