https://doi.org/10.4087/WIIO7282">
 

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Publication Date

2018

Abstract

This study focused on attitudes of 16 year-old students from six countries towards environmental issues on domestic and global scales. Male and female students from China, Guinea, Japan, Malaysia, Ukraine and Vietnam expressed their level of concern about the following in regard to their country and the world: (a) air quality, (b) drinking water quality, (c) pollution caused by atomic power plants, (d) clearing of forests, (e) extinction of plants and animals, (f) climate change and (g) global disaster. This research focused on gender and cultural variability and invariance under diverse conditions of students’ backgrounds.

The most pronounced intercultural regularity found was the prioritization of certain issues. In all countries, both genders showed similar priorities when assessing global and domestic environmental issues. The differences were mainly in the level of anxiety expressed towards environmental problems. While in some countries the level of concern expressed by girls was higher than that of boys, there was no such pattern across all cultures. Only in Japan were the ratings given by boys higher when comparing to those of girls.

Another intercultural regularity was that the level of concern about the world’s environmental problems listed above is higher for both genders than about own country with exceptions of specific pressing national problems.

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