IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6781-d829852.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Action Programs Using Positive Youth Development May Increase Civic Engagement

Author

Listed:
  • Sydney Barnason

    (School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA)

  • Christine Jie Li

    (School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA)

  • Damon M. Hall

    (School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
    Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA)

  • Sonja A. Wilhelm Stanis

    (School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA)

  • John H. Schulz

    (School of Natural Resources, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA)

Abstract

Civic engagement in adults may be influenced by their participation as young people in environmental action programs. To assess this hypothesis, we conducted a case study to see if an environmental action program at the St. Louis Zoo impacted participants’ civic engagement in respect to positive youth development practices. During 2019, we surveyed youth from the St. Louis, Missouri area participating in the Bye-to-Bags program, which was a student-initiated program. We used a modified measurement scale for civic engagement outcomes, and measured three positive youth development practices: sparks, or an individual’s passions; adult relationships; and voice. We found that civic engagement and positive youth development outcomes were both present in the Bye-to-Bags program, which offered opportunities for youth engagement in environmental action in the community. Our results also showed that zoos with environmental action programs may increase youth civic engagement, especially when young people are given a sense of voice in programmatic decisions supported by strong adult relationships. Environmental education programs promoting sustainable behavior may help young people become environmentally responsible and civically engaged adults.

Suggested Citation

  • Sydney Barnason & Christine Jie Li & Damon M. Hall & Sonja A. Wilhelm Stanis & John H. Schulz, 2022. "Environmental Action Programs Using Positive Youth Development May Increase Civic Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-9, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6781-:d:829852
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6781/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6781/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gratiela Dana Boca & Sinan Saraçlı, 2019. "Environmental Education and Student’s Perception, for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Adam Corner & Olga Roberts & Sybille Chiari & Sonja Völler & Elisabeth S. Mayrhuber & Sylvia Mandl & Kate Monson, 2015. "How do young people engage with climate change? The role of knowledge, values, message framing, and trusted communicators," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(5), pages 523-534, September.
    3. Scott Ross Baker & Contantine Yannelis, 2017. "Income Changes and Consumption: Evidence from the 2013 Federal Government Shutdown," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 23, pages 99-124, January.
    4. William Damon, 2004. "What is Positive Youth Development?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 591(1), pages 13-24, January.
    5. Pedro Mauricio Acosta Castellanos & Araceli Queiruga-Dios & Ascensión Hernández Encinas & Libia Cristina Acosta, 2020. "Environmental Education in Environmental Engineering: Analysis of the Situation in Colombia and Latin America," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-14, September.
    6. Danielle F. Lawson & Kathryn T. Stevenson & M. Nils Peterson & Sarah J. Carrier & Renee L. Strnad & Erin Seekamp, 2019. "Children can foster climate change concern among their parents," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(6), pages 458-462, 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. Kyle Herkenhoff & Lee Ohanian, 2019. "The Impact of Foreclosure Delay on U.S. Employment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 63-83, January.
    2. Fábio Albuquerque & Ana Isabel Dias & Alexandra Domingos, 2023. "The Students’ Intrinsic Motivation for Learning Non-Financial Information Matters from Their Self-Identification as Global Citizens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, May.
    3. Tal Gross & Timothy J. Layton & Daniel Prinz, 2022. "The Liquidity Sensitivity of Healthcare Consumption: Evidence from Social Security Payments," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 175-190, June.
    4. John Carter Braxton & Kyle F. Herkenhoff & Jonathan Rothbaum & Lawrence Schmidt, 2021. "Changing Income Risk across the US Skill Distribution: Evidence from a Generalized Kalman Filter," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 55, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    5. Nathaniel Geiger & Bryan McLaughlin & John Velez, 2021. "Not all boomers: temporal orientation explains inter- and intra-cultural variability in the link between age and climate engagement," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Andrea Amado & Koji Kotani & Makoto Kakinaka & Shunsuke Managi, 2023. "Carbon tax for cleaner-energy transition: A vignette experiment in Japan," Working Papers SDES-2023-6, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Oct 2023.
    7. Christophe Blot & Jérôme Creel & Paul Hubert, 2019. "Challenges ahead for EMU monetary policy," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03403244, HAL.
    8. Anna Sokolova, 2023. "Marginal Propensity to Consume and Unemployment: a Meta-analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 813-846, December.
    9. Sandra Parth & Maximilian Schickl & Lars Keller & Johann Stoetter, 2020. "Quality Child–Parent Relationships and Their Impact on Intergenerational Learning and Multiplier Effects in Climate Change Education. Are We Bridging the Knowledge–Action Gap?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Homroy, Swarnodeep, 2023. "GHG emissions and firm performance: The role of CEO gender socialization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    11. Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo & Jialan Wang, 2020. "The Marginal Propensity to Consume over the Business Cycle," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 351-384, April.
    12. Hohberger, Stefan & Priftis, Romanos & Vogel, Lukas, 2020. "The distributional effects of conventional monetary policy and quantitative easing: Evidence from an estimated DSGE model," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    13. Albuquerque, Bruno & Green, Georgina, 2023. "Financial concerns and the marginal propensity to consume in COVID times: Evidence from UK survey data," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Faura-Martínez, Ursula & Lafuente-Lechuga, Matilde, 2024. "Evaluation of the concerns of Spanish university students in the face of current major challenges," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. J. Carter Braxton & Gordon Phillips & Kyle Herkenhoff, 2018. "Can the Unemployed Borrow? Implications for Public Insurance," 2018 Meeting Papers 564, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Stephanie Collins, 2023. "Climate obligations and social norms," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 22(2), pages 103-125, May.
    17. Yunho Cho & James Morley & Aarti Singh, 2024. "Did marginal propensities to consume change with the housing boom and bust?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 174-199, January.
    18. Ye, Xiang & Yue, Pengpeng, 2024. "What matters to reshaping consumption patterns in China? Digital inclusion and supply chain," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    19. Xu, Dandan & Guo, Dongli & Yue, Pengpeng & Li, Mengshi, 2024. "Household green consumption: Does digital inclusion matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    20. Ruth Zárate Rueda & Yolima Ivonne Beltrán Villamizar & Luis Eduardo Becerra Ardila, 2023. "A Retrospective Approach to Pro-Environmental Behavior from Environmental Education: An Alternative from Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-19, March.

    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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6781-:d:829852. 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.