What Makes Junior High School Students and Their Parents to Do More Pro-Environmental Behaviors? - Results from Intergenerational Study in Minamata, Japan

Experiences in nature, sharing knowledge about environmental issues and environmental awareness are examined as the factors to prompt junior high school students' and their parents' pro-environmental behaviors. Based on the survey we conducted in Japan, we found that sharing knowledge is the common factor to promote students' and their parents' own pro-environmental behaviors. Other factors had different effects on their own behaviors.

    In the field of environmental education, several previous studies mentioned experiences in nature as the factor to prompt pro-environmental behaviors and in the field of environmental sociology, they say environmental awareness and knowledge about environmental issues are the factors to do environmentally appropriate behaviors. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of those three factors as the determinants of prompting pro-environmental behaviors. In November 2010, we conducted a survey in Minamata, Japan. Respondents are all the 3^rd grade junior high school students and their parents in that city.

    Results are as follows:1)Both students and parents who try to share knowledge about environmental issues with their family members tend to do pro-environmental behaviors, 2)Experiences in nature are in correlation with only students' pro-environmental behaviors, not with parents’ behaviors, 3) as for students and fathers, awareness of personal responsibilities for and effectiveness of doing environmentally appropriate behaviors have correlation with their pro-environmental behaviors and 4)as for mothers, awareness of personal responsibilities for doing environmentally appropriate behaviors have correlation with their pro-environmental behaviors.