Parent-Child Similarity in Environmental Attitudes: A Pairwise Comparison

Abstract

Are adolescents’ environmental attitudes similar to their parents’ attitudes? The main objective of this study is to examine what quantitative associations, if any, exist in parent-child environmental attitudes within the family. The survey data was collected assessing attitudes toward the environment and nature from 15-year-old students (n = 237) and their parents (n = 212) in Finland. A significant positive correlation emerged in environmental attitudes between mothers and fathers. Interestingly, the results revealed some indicative evidence that girls’ environmental attitudes could relate more to their father's than mother's attitudes. Girls were as positive in their environmental attitudes as their parents and in contrast boys were noticeably more negative than either their parents or girls of the same age. The parental level of education was not found to be significantly related to the level of environmental attitudes of their adolescent offspring. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• environmental attitudes
• intergenerational influence
• parents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks to Michael Freeman, George Hogg, Pekka Hokkanen, and Anna-Liisa Kiiskinen for their valuable help and comments regarding this article. We also wish to thank the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation for economic support.