Impact of an environmental education program on students' and parents' attitudes, motivation, and behaviours

Changes in sixth grade students' and their parents' environmental knowledge, attitudes, motivation, and behaviours following an environmental education program (EEP) over a school year were investigated. Results indicated that at the end of the school year, children who were part of the EEP group engaged in ecological behaviours less for extrinsic motives than did children who were part of a control group. Parents of children in the EEP group were significantly more dissatisfied with local environmental conditions compared to parents of children in the control group. No other significant differences between groups were observed for other measured child and parental variables. Recommendations are presented to guide future studies evaluating an EEP.