This study was designed to better understand factors that build climate change concern (CCC) among adolescents. Findings from the risk perception literature were used to develop a written survey for collecting data. Items on the survey included questions about how worried respondents were concerning climate change and the degree to which they thought climate change would impact themselves, other people in the United States, and future generations. Respondents were also asked if they believed global warming was happening and, if so, did they believe humans were causing it. Additional questions asked about perceived acceptance of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming (AGW) among friends and family and how often participants discussed this concern with each of these groups. The survey was administered in person by the researchers to 426 students in North Carolina. The students were fifth, sixth, and seventh graders attending 24 different schools representative of the state population in terms of locale and school-level socio-economic status.
An analysis of the results showed that personal acceptance of AGW was the strongest predictor of CCC among the adolescents. Frequency of discussion with family and friends was the second strongest predictor and perceived level of acceptance among family and friends as the third strongest. Discussions with family were slightly more important than discussions with friends. Girls were found to perceive climate change as a higher risk than boys.
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