Environmental consciousness among NSW adolescents - opportunities for health promoting schools

Issue addressed: Few research studies have sought to understand young peoples' perceptions of the environment. Students' attitudes, knowledge and levels of concern as adolescents serve as an indicator of future environmental awareness. This descriptive research project explored adolescent perceptions, attitudes, behaviours and concerns toward the environment. Adolescent risk taking behaviour was also explored in relation to reported environmental concern. Methods: Students in Year 6, 8 and 10, attending one of 115 schools selected throughout New South Wales from Government, Independent and Catholic education sectors, completed a self-administered questionnaire. Cluster random sampling was used to obtain this student sample (n=3918), providing a response rate of 84 per cent. Questions were adapted from the World Health Organization Health Behavior Among School Children (WHO-HBSC) survey instrument. Original supplementary questions were developed on environmental issues and perceptions and are the focus of this paper. Results: Students who were less concerned about the environment were those who reported engaging in health comprising behaviours such as smoking and drinking of alcohol, were boys, attended Year 8, engaged in exercise weekly or less, were unhappy, lacked confidence, were not so financially well off, and were born in Australia. So what? The opportunity to implement environmental heath initiatives as part of PDHPE curriculum should be explored and should focus on Year 8 students, with consideration for identified risk factors. These initiatives could make use of Health Promoting School components for a uniquely multi-strategic approach to highlight and cultivate the link between health and the environment. Environmental health education in schools will have to identify ways which environmentally health promoting behaviours may be made acceptable to adolescents, to improve the quality of this critical partnership and benefit both the health of young people and the environment for the future. (author abstract)