Climate change concern and communication patterns within young people and their parents

Abstract

Environmental education is a crucial starting point for environmentally friendly behaviour and raising awareness. Opposite of adults, children in the pre-adolescent and adolescent period are capable of accepting specific models of environmental behaviour. Adopting environmentally friendly lifestyle is a safe pathway to sustainable development. Since the children still do not have any perception of climate change (CC), a proper education could yield in intergenerational knowledge transfer and rising awareness on CC among elders. This research was conducted in several phases: Phase I- a preliminary survey that was provided among elementary school children (7-14y) and their parents with the primary goal to examine their perception on persona knowledge, awareness, concerns and communication patterns on C. Phase II included educational workshops on CC and the renewable sources of energy, and Phase III was a final survey that has the main goal to examine the effects of previous activities. The result indicated that both children and parents have a high-level perception of personal knowledge. Also, children think that their parent also has a high level of expertise on CC while the perceptions on peers knowledge are quite the opposite. Answers that indicate mutual communication among children and parents showed different results. From the children’s point of view, the lack of communication is revealed, while parents perceive that communication is good. Finally, after the workshops and education, the final survey indicated that communication among children and parents had been improved, but communication among peers seems to deteriorate.