Publication details
Climate Change Awareness and the Attitudes of Adolescents in the Czech Republic
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Envigogika |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.envigogika.cuni.cz/index.php/Envigogika/article/view/472/639 |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | adolescence; pro-environmental attitudes; awareness; climate change; Czech Republic; environmental behaviour; knowledge |
| Attached files | |
| Description | This study analyses the distribution of climate change awareness of Czech adolescent students and their climate change related attitudes. Even though the influence of accessed information on actual behaviour is usually described as rather small by most studies, we would like to point out that the effect of knowledge on a specific behaviour can become significant from a long-term perspective – but we lack this kind of academic result because of methodological issues (Bas, 2010). Thus the main focus of this exploratory study is to offer a segmentation of Czech adolescents regarding the issue of climate change as it relates to the information sources they trust and as it relates to particular types of information on climate change – such as documents, processes, terms or numerical data. A sample of self-selected students from Masaryk University and students from several grammar schools in the Czech Republic participated in a quantitative study focusing on their knowledge of climate change, the information sources they use, and their pro-environmental attitudes. The survey revealed an extremely low level of student knowledge. A close correlation between the amount of information accessed and the students’ evaluation of the seriousness of climate change was found. The students’ trust in scientific evidence and their efforts not to rely on only one source of information correlate with their awareness. The students who understand climate change well are often post-materialists. On the other hand, well informed students do not feel more concerned and are not more globally focused than others. Thus the study has confirmed general assumptions regarding vague awareness about climate change in this specific context, and it presents a segmentation of the Czech student population for further social-marketing purposes. |
| Related projects: |