Middle School Students’ Attitudes towards the Environment and Factors Affecting their Attitudes

Objective: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted to determine middle school students’attitudes towards the environment and the factors affecting their attitudes.Method: The study using the simple random sampling and sample was 720 students. Data were collected withSociodemographic Characteristics Questionnaire and Environmental Attitude Scale (EAS). Mean, percentage, ttests, variance analysis (One-Way ANOVA), were used in the analysis.Results: Of the environmental issues, the ones which drew the students’ attention most were the protection ofanimals (75.2%) and afforestation (65.0%) whereas the ones they considered as the most important were theenvironmental pollution (65.9%) and air pollution (60.5%). The students obtained the lowest (X̄= 3.1870) andhighest (X̄=4.3172) mean scores from the 3rd and 7th items of the EAS respectively.Conclusions: It was determined that the participating students' attitudes towards the environment were positive ingeneral, and that the participants at whose homes environmental issues are talked displayed more positive attitudesKeywords: Environment, Middle school, Student, Environmental Attitude Scale, Education