Spillover Effect on Families Derived from Environmental Education for Children

Abstract

Facing the challenge of global warming, greater importance has been placed on learning energy and environment in schools and the energy-saving behaviors of children and their families are encouraged. The authors implemented energy environmental education programs with visualization in elementary and junior high schools, and surveyed changes in the awareness and behavior of children and their families. As for children, the results showed that the programs increased the awareness of effectiveness, while almost no change was observed in other factors. The psychological factors impacting intention and behavior in children were attitude, expectations from parents and expansion of interest. Indicating spillover effect on families derived from education of children, psychological factors and behavior of parents were improved. Awareness of effectiveness and behavior of children had significant effects to the most psychological factors of parents, leading to intentional and behavioral change. Furthermore, behavior of parents got influenced by expectations from children. It was also indicated that the higher the awareness of the child is, the greater the spillover effect on the family as a result of education is.

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