Family, School, and Peer Groups Affect Environmental Attitudes

According to the United Nations, environmental education is crucial for sustainable development. Yet audiences respond differently to environmental education materials depending on a suite of social factors, meaning that sustainability outcomes can vary widely. By understanding how social factors relate to environmental attitudes—an important precursor to sustainable behavior—educators can tailor their efforts to better match the needs of their audiences. To that end, the authors of this study examined how social factors such as family, school, and peer groups influenced adolescents' environmental attitudes.

Previous research suggests that, in many cases, positive environmental attitudes are necessary for the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors. Although environmental behavior depends on many complex psychological components, environmental attitudes are a helpful starting point for understanding an audience. Additionally, prior studies show that family, peers, and educational context can influence environmental attitudes among adolescents in particular, who will play a key role in future sustainability.

The authors accessed data on adolescents' environmental attitudes through a large-scale survey conducted by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2006. The PISA survey gathered data from over 172,000 students aged 15, representing nearly all European Union (EU) nations. The PISA randomly sampled schools in each country, with larger schools having a greater chance of being selected. Within each school, 35 students of age 15 were asked to take the survey. The authors included all 172,000 responses in their analysis.

The PISA survey asked students to rate their agreement with seven environmental statements, dealing with topics including vehicle emissions, plastic waste, and hazardous waste regulation. Based on students' responses to these statements, the authors calculated an environmental attitude index (EAI) for each individual. A higher EAI indicates a more positive overall environmental attitude. The authors then ran a variety of statistical tests to examine how a student's EAI related to his or her demographics, including information about family and school.

Finally, the authors compared each individual EAI to the average of all students in that school, and to the average of all students in that country. This comparison served as an indicator of how influential a student's peer group and country are in determining environmental attitudes. Here, “peer group” refers to all students of the same age within a given school, because the PISA survey did not distinguish between smaller social groups (e.g. classes, interest groups, or cliques).

The results support existing literature that shows that family, peer group, and educational context have strong effects on environmental attitudes, along with certain personal and demographic factors. Students whose families were of a higher socioeconomic status tended to have higher EAIs, and having more books in the family home was correlated with an increase in EAI. Individual EAI scores were closely correlated with the average EAI of other students in the same school, as well as with other schools in the same country, suggesting that school-wide peer groups and nation-wide cultural or educational trends were highly influential.

Students were more likely to have a high EAI if their schools provided information about deforestation, air pollution, and water scarcity. Additionally, all else being equal, students in small towns were significantly (1.1%) more likely to have higher EAI scores; the authors hypothesize that this is because these students are more involved in local rural environments.

On average, girls had a 1.42% higher EAI than boys did, which was statistically significant. Analysis also showed that students' gender influenced the ways in which other predictors impacted their EAI. Girls' EAI scores tended to be more strongly influenced by socioeconomic status, peer group, and school characteristics, whereas boys' EAI scores tended to be more strongly influenced by their country's average EAI.

Complex social interactions within peer groups often take place at a smaller scale than the PISA survey examined. Therefore, although the results suggest that school-wide peer groups significantly affect environmental attitudes, more research is necessary to examine exactly how dynamics among smaller social groups work. Additionally, the multicultural and educational context of this study may impact generalizability to other populations.

Because the authors found that curricula affected environmental attitudes, they recommend that schools expand the incorporation of environmental topics. Given that peer groups were also significant in determining attitudes, the authors recommend that educational efforts reach out to families and communities in addition to their target audience. The analysis suggests that adolescents who live in cities or areas of lower socioeconomic status would benefit from additional educational support on environmental topics. Finally, because of the strong influence peer groups have on environmental attitudes, the authors hypothesize that a “social multiplier” effect may amplify the impacts of environmental education, in which curriculum affects both individual attitudes and peer group dynamics.