Environmental knowledge and attitudes of secondary school students in the greater Beirut area

النوع : Mémoire

The purpose of this study was to assess secondary school students' environmental knowledge and attitudes in the Greater Beirut area. The study also explored the relationship between environmental knowledge and attitude and biographical and academic variables, such as student gender, grade level, and high school stream, and parental educational level. Participants were 660 students representing grade 10 and grade 11 (scientific and humanities). Students were administered a questionnaire designed to assess their environmental knowledge and attitudes. Participants' knowledge of general environmental topics emphasized in the new Lebanese environmental curriculum was measured. Additionally, participants' environmental beliefs, affect, intentions, and commitment to environmental friendly behaviors were assessed.--Results showed that students possessed inadequate environmental knowledge and favorable attitudes toward the environment. Students with parents having college education had significantly higher environmental knowledge scores than students with parents who had high school education or less. Furthermore, females in grade 10 scored significantly higher than males on environmental knowledge and attitudes. In the "Humanities" stream of grade 11, males had significantly higher mean knowledge scores than females.--Participants' environmental knowledge was significantly related to their environmental attitude, environmental beliefs, affect, behavioral intentions, and commitment to behavior. However, all correlations were low. Finally, stepwise regression analysis indicated that environmental intentions and affect are the best predictors of commitment to environmental friendly behavior.