TITLE:
Spillover Effect on Families Derived from Environmental Education for Children
AUTHORS:
Ai Hiramatsu, Kiyo Kurisu, Hiroshi Nakamura, Shuichi Teraki, Keisuke Hanaki
KEYWORDS:
School Education, Energy-Saving, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Psychological Factors, Awareness and Behavior
JOURNAL NAME:
Low Carbon Economy,
Vol.5 No.2,
June
3,
2014
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.