Dr. Peterson will discuss how children can facilitate environmental learning and behavior change among their parents against all odds. He will describe an experimental study wherein climate education of children in the United States created climate change concern among parents, and did so most effectively among the very demographic groups who denied anthropogenic climate change before the treatment. His lecture will suggest ways this form of intergenerational learning can help address the 21st century’s grand environmental challenges.
Collective action required to mitigate and adapt to climate change is extremely difficult to achieve, largely due to socio-ideological biases that perpetuate polarization over climate change. This challenge is particularly acute in the United States. Children, however, appear less vulnerable to these ideological biases, and may inspire adults toward greater levels of climate concern. Child-to-parent intergenerational learning (IGL)—that is, the transfer of knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors from children to parents—may be a promising, but previously unexamined, pathway to overcoming socio-ideological barriers to climate concern.
Dr. Peterson present an experimental evaluation of an educational intervention designed to build climate change concern among parents indirectly through their middle school-aged children. Parents of children in the treatment group expressed higher levels of climate change concern than parents in the control group. Effects were strongest among male parents and conservative parents, who, consistent with previous research, displayed the lowest levels of concern at pretest. Daughters appeared to be especially effective in influencing parents. Our results suggest that IGL may overcome barriers to building climate concern, and be a productive pathway for addressing diverse environmental challenges.
Speaker is Nils Peterson, Professor at North Carolina State University.
