The correlation of personality traits with pro-environmental attitudes and interest and concern for climate change among students

Klimatske promjene i njihove posljedice jedan su od najključnijih izazova s kojima se čovječanstvo danas susreće te je stoga bitno razumjeti zašto pojedinci usvajaju, odnosno ne usvajaju pro-ekološke stavove, pri čemu osobine ličnosti mogu poslužiti kao objašnjenje. S obzirom na prethodno izražen interes studenata za navedene teme, klimatske promjene kao jedan od važnijih ekoloških problema današnjice, moguću posredujuću ulogu stavova između osobina ličnosti te zabrinutosti za ekološke probleme i interesa za klimatske promjene, cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati povezanost između pro–ekoloških stavova, interesa za klimatske promjene, zabrinutosti za ekološke probleme te osobina ličnosti na uzorku studenata. Rezultati su prikupljeni putem online upitnika skalama samoprocjene. Kao mjera proekoloških stavova korištena je Skala nove ekološke paradigme (Dunlap i Van Liere, 1978), kao mjera osobina ličnosti HEXACO upitnik (Lee i Ashton, 2009), a kao mjera interesa za klimatske promjene i zabrinutosti za ekološke probleme Skala ekološke zabrinutosti te Skala interesa za klimatske promjene od Hadžiselimovića (2015). Uzorak se sastojao od 215 studenata isključivo s područja Republike Hrvatske, pri čemu ih je većina bila ženskog spola (74.88%), kao i preddiplomske razine studija (73.96%). Ispitivala se povezanost izraženosti pro-ekoloških stavova te interesa za klimatske promjene i zabrinutosti za ekološke probleme, pri čemu je utvrđena umjerena pozitivna povezanost između izraženosti pro-ekoloških stavova i obje varijable. Utvrđena je i slaba značajna pozitivna povezanost između otvorenosti ka iskustvu i savjesnosti s interesom za klimatske promjene, kao i između zabrinutosti za ekološke probleme i rezultata na dimenziji emocionalnosti. Posljednje, utvrđena je i slaba statistički značajna pozitivna povezanost između rezultata na dimenziji emocionalnosti i pro-ekoloških stavova.Climate change and its consequences are one of the most important challenges humanity is facing today, and therefore it is important to understand why individuals adopt or do not adopt pro-environmental attitudes, whereby personality traits can serve as an explanation. Considering the previously expressed interest of students in the mentioned topics, climate change as one of the most important current environmental problems, the possible mediating role of attitudes between personality traits and concern for environmental problems and interest in climate change, the aim of this study was to examine the connection between proenvironmental attitudes, interest in climate change, concern for environmental problems and personality traits in a sample of students. The results were collected through an online questionnaire with self-report scales. The New Ecological Paradigm Scale (Dunlap & Van Liere, 1978), was used as a measure of pro-ecological attitudes, the HEXACO personality trait questionnaire (Lee & Ashton, 2009) as a measure of personality traits and the Scale of Environmental Concerns and the Scale of Interest in climate change by Hadžiselimović (2015) as the scale of interest in climate change and concern for environmental problems. The sample consisted of 215 students exclusively from the territory of the Republic of Croatia, with the majority of them being female (74.88%), as well as undergraduate students (73.96%). The correlation between expressed pro-environmental attitudes and interest and concern for climate change was tested, and a moderate positive significant correlation between expressed proenvironmental attitudes and both variables was found. A weak significant positive correlation was also found between openness to experience, but also conscientiousness and interest in climate change, while a significant positive correlation for climate change concern was only found with the dimension of emotionality. Finally, a weak statistically significant positive correlation was found between the results on the dimension of emotionality and proenvironmental attitudes