Does motivation and emotions predict the evolution of pro-environmental behaviors among children?
(2024) International Conference on Motivation — Location: Bern
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- Abstract
- One aim of environmental education is to foster the adoption of nature-friendly behaviors. An important question is therefore which processes or variables environmental education activities should focus on in order to achieve this aim. A large number of variables have been suggested by environmental education researchers, such as knowledge, self-efficacy beliefs, emotions, as well as frequency of contact with nature or feelings of connection to nature. However, these different variables are not always considered together, making it difficult to identify their respective contributions. More importantly, most of the available studies follow a cross-sectional research design, which makes it impossible to test whether these variables do indeed predict changes in pro-environmental behaviors. 899 pupils in grades 4, 5 or 6 completed a questionnaire twice, six months apart. This questionnaire included measures of pro-environmental behaviors, action knowledge, self-efficacy beliefs, emotions, frequency of contact with nature, as well as the Connection to Nature Index (Chen & Monroe, 2012). Students' age, gender and socio-economic level were also assessed. Multiple regression analyses show that changes in pro-environmental behaviors are positively related to enjoyment of nature and self-efficacy beliefs, and negatively related to participants' age. The other variables had no direct effect on pro-environmental behaviors at T2. These results suggest that activities that promote self-efficacy and emotional experience of enjoyment of nature are a promising avenue for environmental education.
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Citations
Galand, B., & Davreux, Z. (2024). Does motivation and emotions predict the evolution of pro-environmental behaviors among children? International Conference on Motivation, Bern. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/234746