Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.60.3.3
Youth and Climate Change: Awareness and Behavioural Intentions
Marina Maglić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6851-4601
; Institute of Social Science Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Tomislav Pavlović
; Institute of Social Science Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Renata Franc
orcid.org/0000-0002-1909-2393
; Institute of Social Science Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Despite the growing public interest and debate on anthropogenic climate change, there is
a noticeable lack of research on the attitudes and behaviour of young people in relation to
climate change in the Croatian context. Namely, although young people are the future of
every society and bearers of development, the relationship between their awareness of climate
change and intentions towards reducing the negative human impact on the environment has
been insufficiently researched. In this paper, we focused on examining the above-mentioned
relationship based on the data of 2,134 students from 28 secondary schools in the Republic
of Croatia, collected within the CHIEF project survey. We tested structural models of intentions
to participate in activities related to environmental protection and awareness of the
importance of such action, with participant gender, type of school programme (grammar/vocational),
and perceived availability of teaching content related to environmental protection as
potential moderators of the aforementioned relationship. The conducted analyses confirmed
awareness of climate change as a significant predictor of general willingness to participate in
environmental protection activities, but also indicated that the strength of this relationship is
moderated by gender, type of school program and the estimated learning opportunities regarding
climate change at school.
Keywords
climate change; youth climate awareness; behavioural intentions towards environmental protection
Hrčak ID:
295195
URI
Publication date:
9.3.2023.
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