Assessing environmental attitudes in undergraduates through a new ecological paradigm scale

As climate change becomes more apparent from changes in the natural world, it is urgent that action must be taken. One's environmental attitude influences their environmental concern and willingness to act in climate-friendly ways. To assess the environmental attitudes of undergraduate students at a university in New Zealand, researchers utilized the revised New Ecological Paradigm scale (NEP). The researchers in this study used this scale to discover if a student's time in undergrad affected their environmental attitudes.

Conducted in 2010, this study surveyed 194 first-year and 311 second-year undergraduate students in the statistics, zoology, human nutrition, and other departments at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. The 15-item NEP survey measured student environmental attitudes. Students rated each statement on a five-point Likert scale depending on how much they agreed with it. NEP attitude scores included one overall average score based on the 15 items and four sub scores based on a subset of survey items: conserve (3 items), recycle (6 items), respect to animal and plant rights (3 items), and cautiousness of the future (3 items). After analysis, the researchers classified the students into three categories depending on their score for each of the five possible scores, each category included an equal number of students. The three categories included: brown tertile, where students scored in the lowest third of the group and were assigned a sustainability attitude rating (SAR) of 1; unsure tertile, where students scored between the lowest and highest third of the group and were assigned a SAR of 2; green tertile, where students scored in the highest third of the group and were assigned a SAR of 3.

Overall, for the total average NEP score, results showed all students were more likely to score higher (green tertile) in Year 2 versus Year 1, showing positive environmental attitudes increase with more time school. Regarding recycling sub scores, results showed the second-year zoology students exhibited were more likely to score higher (green tertile) in their second-year versus first, but other majors did not. Similarly, this same group of students were significantly more likely to score higher (green tertile) in their second year versus first in the conserve sub scores. Human nutrition majors and other major respondents were more likely to be within the green tertile for being cautious about the future category during their second year. There were no significant increases for second-year zoology students regarding their perspectives on animal and plant rights beliefs. Researchers found that it was made clear that positive differences in environmental attitudes are made during the first two years of college.

There were limitations to this study. When students missed the course material, there was a chance this missed knowledge affected their environmental attitudes or behaviors. Also, the course material at this university for statistics, zoology, and human nutrition are subject to the professor and may not imitate that of other, similar courses in institutions around the world, so results may not reign true for students in other universities even if in the same major.

The researchers suggest higher education institutions should incorporate similar evaluations routinely in their work. Particularly, others should consider using the modeling analysis they used in this study. The researchers also suggest using what is learned from assessment to change and improve curriculum.