The objective of the research is to gain an understanding of environmental knowledge, behavior and attitudes among students in general across the nation but with an emphasis on students from disadvantaged neighborhoods. Although past research has addressed knowledge of the environment among both adults and young people, there is little information available about disadvantaged children and their relationship to the environment. Other research has indicated that young people from disadvantaged areas are often exposed to higher levels of environmental hazards than children from other areas. Moreover, research has also shown that disadvantaged students generally have less opportunity to experience the natural environment, as well as fewer opportunities or incentives to focus their attention or energy on the environment, presumably because more pressing concerns such as crime and the economy take precedence in their lives. This study searches to better understand students from disadvantaged areas, filling the gap in current knowledge and laying the groundwork for future environmental education efforts targeted at this constituency.
Phase I of this project consisted of qualitative research among disadvantaged students. Nine focus groups were conducted in three cities: New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Participants in the focus groups varied by gender and age: Two groups of boys and girls ages 8-10; one of girls 11-14; one of boys 11-14 and one of girls 15-17. The final focus group included boys aged 15-17. These groups were a rich source of data for developing some general hypotheses to be explored and tested in the quantitative phases of the research.
Phase II was a nationwide quantitative survey of students in grades 4 through 12 nationwide. A national cross-section of 982 students were interviewed for this phase, using a school-based data collection methodology. This phase of the project provides an overall look at students and their attitudes toward the environment, allowing comparisons by gender, grade and region. This phase also allows for a comparison of the attitudes, knowledge and behaviors of a cross-section of students nationwide and a small subsample of students from disadvantaged areas. (Students from disadvantaged areas are young people in areas where 30% or more of the population is below the poverty line; see Methodology for greater detail.) Qualitative assessments of similarities and differences between these two groups provide directional input into the final phase of this research, a quantitative survey among students from disadvantaged areas only.
Phase III, the final phase of the project, was conducted in the Fall of 1994. This phase consists of an in-depth quantitative survey based on 2,139 interviews among students from disadvantaged areas only, again using a school-based methodology. A full description of the school-based design is found in the Methodology section of this report. The initial two phases of the research have provided valuable input into the design of this final phase. Furthermore, the results of Phase II provided national norms and a subsegment of 818 Òyouth from non-disadvantaged areasÓ with which young people from disadvantaged areas from this Phase III survey are compared.
This report is divided into four sections. Chapter One looks at perceptions of the natural environment in the context of other societal issues and the concerns young people have about specific environmental problems. This chapter also contains an examination of the student population by groups, by means of a cluster analysis. Chapter Two explores environmental education, from overall knowledge today to the issues young people would like to know more about. Chapter Three examines the environment in the day-to-day lives of students today, looking at conditions in local neighborhoods as well as at actions taken by young people to benefit the natural environment. Finally, Chapter Four tests the appeal of various approaches that might expand the environmental horizons of young people, assessing the sources of information they would most like to turn to learn more about the environment, as well as their interest and actual participation in groups that work for the environment.
In addition, there are two appendices to this report. Appendix A details the deographic profile of students in both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged areas. Appendix B details the procedures used in the cluster analysis and the path analysis. Many of the charts throughout the report refer to specific questions from the actual survey; a questionnaire after the Appendices provides exact question wording.