Lifestyle decisions and climate mitigation: current action and behavioural intent of youth

Gary J Pickering; Kaylee Schoen; Marta Botta

doi:10.1007/s11027-021-09963-4

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Lifestyle decisions and climate mitigation: current action and behavioural intent of youth

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Lifestyle decisions and climate mitigation: current action and behavioural intent of youth

Gary J Pickering, Kaylee Schoen and Marta Botta

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Vol.26, pp.1-27

2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-021-09963-4

PMCID: PMC8550525

PMID: 34776752

Appears in UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection

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Abstract

Air pollution

Global temperature changes

Greenhouse gases

Meat

Sustainable development

Teenagers

Youth

UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages

Youth carry the burden of a climate crisis not of their making, yet their accumulative lifestyle decisions will help determine the severity of future climate impacts. We surveyed 17--18 year old's (N=487) to establish their action stages for nine behaviours that vary in efficacy of greenhouse gas emission (GGE) reduction and the explanatory role of climate change (CC) knowledge, sociodemographic and belief factors. Acceptance of CC and its anthropogenic origins was high. However, the behaviours with the greatest potential for GGE savings (have no children/one less child, no car or first/next car will be electric, eat less meat) have the lowest uptake. Descriptive normative beliefs predicted intent to adopt all high-impact actions, while environmental locus of control, CC scepticism, knowledge of the relative efficacy of actions, religiosity and age were predictive of action stage for several mitigation behaviours (multinomial logistic regression). These findings inform policy and communication interventions that seek to mobilise youth in the global climate crisis response. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Biological Sciences, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, L2S 3A1, St. Catharines, ON, Canada (2) Department of Psychology, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, L2S 3A1, St. Catharines, ON, Canada (3) Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, L2S 3A1, St. Catharines, ON, Canada (4) Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, 4556, 90 Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia (a) gpickering@brocku.ca Article History: Registration Date: 07/01/2021 Received Date: 08/27/2020 Accepted Date: 06/30/2021 Online Date: 07/26/2021 Byline:

Details

Title: Lifestyle decisions and climate mitigation: current action and behavioural intent of youth
Authors: Gary J Pickering (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sustainability Research Cluster
Kaylee Schoen (Author) - Brock University
Marta Botta (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Social Sciences - Legacy
Publication details: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Vol.26, pp.1-27
Audience: Academic
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Date published: 2021
DOI: 10.1007/s11027-021-09963-4
ISSN: 1573-1596
PMID: 34776752; PMC8550525
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/.
Organisation Unit: School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99564008902621
Output Type: Journal article