Trends in environmental concern by grade level: A study of elementary, middle, and high school students

Environmental concern has been frequently measured since the 1970\u27s, however, much of this research has focused on adults. Of the studies that look at students, the majority focus on high school with little attention given to middle or elementary grades. None of these studies have looked at elementary, middle, and high school students from the same population. This study uses the NEP Scale for Children in conjunction with free response questions to examine the trends in environmental concern from 120 Catholic elementary, middle school, and high school students from Des Moines, Iowa. The findings show no significant differences in levels of concern for the dimensions of anti-exemptionalism and belief in an eco-crisis, but show that levels of concern for rights of nature is significantly higher in elementary and middle school grades when compared to high school. It was also found that as students increase in grade level, less concern is placed on simple environmental issues like pollution and destruction of nature, while more concern is placed on complex issues like climate change. Implications for curriculum design and environmental programming are discussed