IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v11y2022i4p179-d792965.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Do School Children Know about Climate Change? A Social Sciences Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Álvaro-Francisco Morote

    (Department of Experimental and Social Sciences Education, Faculty Teaching Training, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • María Hernández

    (Department of Regional Geographical Analysis and Physical Geography, University of Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain)

Abstract

One of the subject areas that is currently most prominent in the field of education (Social Science) is climate change, given its implications for raising awareness and training the present and future society. The objectives of this study, focused on school children (Primary Education—10 to 12 years old; third cycle, Secondary Education—12–16 years old; and pre-university, Baccalaureate—17–18 years old) in the Region of Valencia (Spain), are to analyse the following: the main information channels through which children receive information on climate change; the causes and consequences that they identify with respect to this phenomenon; and the main greenhouse gas that they believe is in the atmosphere. Based on the 575 students surveyed during the academic year 2020–2021, the results indicate that the three main information media are digital (TV—82.8%, Internet—56.2% and social networks—49.4%). With respect to the causes of the phenomenon identified by the students, particularly noteworthy was pollution (70.1%) and, in terms of the effects, the increase and changes in temperature (61.7%) were of particular note. Finally, with reference to greenhouse gases, the majority responded CO 2 (63.5%). This is incorrect, as the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is water vapour. To sum up, we can highlight the role played by schools in training the future society and the risk arising from an increase in the information received from digital media by children as they grow older, due to the danger of misinformation.

Suggested Citation

  • Álvaro-Francisco Morote & María Hernández, 2022. "What Do School Children Know about Climate Change? A Social Sciences Approach," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-17, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:4:p:179-:d:792965
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/4/179/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/4/179/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer, 2018. "Fake news and indifference to scientific fact: President Trump’s confused tweets on global warming, climate change and weather," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(1), pages 625-629, October.
    2. Allen, D.E. & McAleer, M.J., 2018. "Fake News and Indifference to Scientific Fact," Econometric Institute Research Papers TI 2018-054/III, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    3. Enzo Ferrari & Anne-Marie Ballegeer & Miguel Angel Fuertes & Pablo Herrero & Laura Delgado & Diego Corrochano & Santiago Andrés-Sánchez & Kylyan Marc Bisquert & Antonio Garcia-Vinuesa & Pablo Meira & , 2019. "Improvement on Social Representation of Climate Change through a Knowledge-Based MOOC in Spanish," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-21, November.
    4. Albert Satorra & Peter Bentler, 2010. "Ensuring Positiveness of the Scaled Difference Chi-square Test Statistic," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 243-248, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chia-Lin Chang & Michael McAleer, 2019. "Modeling Latent Carbon Emission Prices for Japan: Theory and Practice," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, November.
    2. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer, 2019. "Fake News and Propaganda: Trump’s Democratic America and Hitler’s National Socialist (Nazi) Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-19, September.
    3. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer, 2018. "President Trump Tweets Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un on Nuclear Weapons: A Comparison with Climate Change †," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-6, July.
    4. David E. Allen & Michael McAleer, 2022. "Trump’s COVID-19 tweets and Dr. Fauci’s emails," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1643-1655, March.
    5. César Merino-Soto & Gina Chávez-Ventura & Verónica López-Fernández & Guillermo M. Chans & Filiberto Toledano-Toledano, 2022. "Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L): Psychometric and Measurement Invariance Evidence in Peruvian Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Csilla Horváth & Feray Adigüzel & Hester van Herk, 2013. "Cultural Aspects Of Compulsive Buying In Emerging And Developed Economies: A Cross Cultural Study In Compulsive Buying," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 4(2).
    7. Anastasia Stathopoulou & Tommy Kweku Quansah & George Balabanis, 2022. "The Blinding Effects of Team Identification on Sports Corruption: Cross-Cultural Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 511-529, August.
    8. Balabanis, George & Stathopoulou, Anastasia, 2021. "The price of social status desire and public self-consciousness in luxury consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 463-475.
    9. Mirjam Braßler & Martin Schultze, 2021. "Students’ Innovation in Education for Sustainable Development—A Longitudinal Study on Interdisciplinary vs. Monodisciplinary Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Lars Petersen & Jacob Hörisch & Kathleen Jacobs, 2021. "Worse is worse and better doesn't matter?: The effects of favorable and unfavorable environmental information on consumers’ willingness to pay," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(5), pages 1338-1356, October.
    11. F Rodrigues & R Macedo & DS Teixeira & L Cid & D Monteiro, 2020. "Motivation in sport and exercise: a comparison between the BRSQ and BREQ," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1335-1350, August.
    12. João Fidalgo & João Botelho & Luís Proença & José João Mendes & Vanessa Machado & Ana Sintra Delgado, 2022. "Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Portuguese Version of the Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-8, August.
    13. Antonio J. Rodríguez-Hidalgo & Anabel Alcívar & Mauricio Herrera-López, 2019. "Traditional Bullying and Discriminatory Bullying Around Special Educational Needs: Psychometric Properties of Two Instruments to Measure It," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, January.
    14. Frías-Jamilena, Dolores M. & Sabiote-Ortiz, Carmen M. & Martín-Santana, Josefa D. & Beerli-Palacio, Asunción, 2018. "The effect of Cultural Intelligence on consumer-based destination brand equity," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 22-36.
    15. Bouncken, Ricarda B. & Fredrich, Viktor, 2016. "Business model innovation in alliances: Successful configurations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3584-3590.
    16. Olenka Dworakowski & Zilla M. Huber & Tabea Meier & Ryan L. Boyd & Mike Martin & Andrea B. Horn, 2022. "You Do Not Have to Get through This Alone: Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Psychosocial Resources during the COVID-19 Pandemic across Four Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-20, November.
    17. Chen, Tingting & Li, Fuli & Chen, Xiao-Ping & Ou, Zhanying, 2018. "Innovate or die: How should knowledge-worker teams respond to technological turbulence?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1-16.
    18. Díaz, Estrella & Martín-Consuegra, David & Esteban, Águeda, 2015. "Perceptions of service cannibalisation: The moderating effect of the type of travel agency," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 329-342.
    19. Sen Sendjaya & Nathan Eva & Ivan Butar Butar & Mulyadi Robin & Samantha Castles, 2019. "SLBS-6: Validation of a Short Form of the Servant Leadership Behavior Scale," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 941-956, June.
    20. Joana R. Casanova & Leandro S. Almeida & Francisco Peixoto & Rui-Bártolo Ribeiro & João Marôco, 2019. "Academic Expectations Questionnaire: A Proposal for a Short Version," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440188, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:4:p:179-:d:792965. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.