THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOWER-SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITIES AND SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOWER-SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ENVIRONMENTAL IDENTITIES AND SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES

Summary/Abstract: Understanding how adolescents’ connections with nature relate to their sustainable orientations is critical for designing effective environmental education programs. However, empirical evidence on this relationship remains limited in non-Western contexts such as Türkiye. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the relationship between lower-secondary school students’ environmental identities and their sustainable environmental attitudes, and to determine whether these constructs differ by gender and grade level. The sample comprised 359 students (5th-8th grades) from public schools in the Marmara Region of Türkiye, selected through convenience sampling from three schools, ensuring a robust and valid assessment. Data were collected using the Environmental Identity Scale and the Sustainable Environmental Attitude Scale. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between environmental identity and sustainable environmental attitudes. Independent-samples t-tests showed that female students scored higher on the overall environmental identity scale, particularly in moral responsibility toward nature and seeing nature as part of the self. For sustainable environmental attitudes, females scored higher in perception, behavior, and the overall scale. One-way ANOVA analyses indicated that lower-grade students demonstrated stronger environmental identities and higher perception and behavior scores, whereas higher-grade students exhibited stronger thought scores. No significant grade-level differences were found for overall sustainable environmental attitudes.

• Details
• Contents