From concern to behavior: barriers and enablers of adolescents’ pro-environmental behavior in a school context

Abstract

This article focuses on factors influencing adolescents’ environmental behavior and approaches to promote adolescents’ pro-environmental behavior in a school context. The study also explores the possibilities provided by environmental behavior research to environmental education (EE). The study is based on a qualitative meta-analysis, which suggests that a lack of support from home or school, unpleasant emotions, lack of motivation, norms, lack of authoritative space, lack of concrete actions, and the media may prevent students from acting in an environmentally responsible manner. Moreover, the meta-analysis presents enabling and fostering factors to overcome the barriers to pro-environmental behavior. Lastly, the study proposes an educational model that promotes pro-environmental behavior and could be applied to adolescents’ school education.

Keywords:

• environmental education
• pro-environmental behavior
• environmental concern
• adolescents
• qualitative meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the associate editor and the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions that have considerably improved this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation under grant No. 00190345

Notes on contributors

Anssi Huoponen

Anssi Huoponen is a Ph.D. student in geography at the University of Eastern Finland. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies of the University of Eastern Finland. His research focuses on educational approaches to promote adolescents’ environmental behavior.