Impact of Environmental Knowledge and Attitude on Environmental Behavior: A Case Study of Secondary Schools, Pakistan

Abstract

This study examined the impact of environmental knowledge and environmental attitude on pro-environmental behavior among 375 students of 9th and 10th grade of public and private secondary schools of Pakistan through mixed method approach. An adapted tool called “CATES” developed by Malkus, Amy, Musser, and Lynn (1993) was used to collect the quantitative data and open ended interviews were used for yielding qualitative data. Overall reliability for this tool was found to be 0.791 in Pakistani context. Association and dissociation were determined among male and female, rural and urban, and public and private students. The multiple regression analysis revealed that both environmental knowledge and environmental attitude make significant contribution, R-square = .753 (75.3 %) to the prediction of environmental behavior. Environmental attitude was found best predictor, R-square = .708 (70.8 %) while knowledge weak predictor, R-square = .428 (42.8 %) of environmental behavior. Significant differences between environmental knowledge and income of the parents of the respondents were reported. These significant differences were also found between the environmental attitude and the age groups. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences in environmental knowledge with education and income of parents, similarly these significant differences were also found in environmental attitude and education of parents. The qualitative findings highlighted three major themes; environmental consumption, environmental worry and environmental protection. Finally, new directions for future research in environmental knowledge and its impact on teachers and students of elementary and higher level of education are recommended..