Conciencia ecológica y experiencia ambiental en la infancia / Ecological awareness and children's environmental experience

Hasta fechas muy recientes, el estudio de las creencias y actitudes ambientales se ha centrado en muestras de participantes adultos. Sin embargo, conocer el nivel de conciencia ambiental infantil es relevante, ya que facilitará que las generaciones futuras asuman las exigencias de la proambientalidad. Este trabajo destaca la importancia de las experiencias ambientales en la infancia para asumir valores y creencias proambientales. Se ofrecen datos sobre el nivel de conciencia ecológica de muestras infantiles en España utilizando tanto la Escala del Nuevo Paradigma Ambiental (NEP) como la Escala de Percepción de Problemas Ambientales (CEPS). Los datos registrados permiten concluir que el nivel de conciencia ecológica de la población infantil española es medio-alto. Además, se propone un modelo en el que se definen cuatro perfiles ecológicos en la infancia: Eco-orientados, naturalistas de salón, utilitaristas y tecno-orientados. Se concluye destacando el valor de las experiencias de contacto con la naturaleza

Until recently, the study of environmental beliefs and attitudes has been focused on adults. However, a better understanding of chil-dren's environmental awareness is needed, since this will make it easier for future generations to assume the demands of pro-environmentalism. This paper highlights the importance of environmental experiences during childhood for the development of pro-environmental attitudes. We discuss different data about Spanish children's ecological awareness, measured with the New Envi-ronmental Paradigm (NEP) scale and the Children's Environmental Perception Scale (CEPS). According to our findings, Spanish children show a medium-high level of ecological awareness. In addition, we propose a model describing four ecological profiles: eco-oriented, lounge naturalists, utilitarians and techno-oriented. We conclude by highlighting the value of experiences of contact with nature for children's pro-environmentalism

Transcendence and Sublime Experience in Nature: Awe and Inspiring Energy.

The wilderness is one of the most widely recognized sources of transcendent emotion. Various recent studies have demonstrated nature's power to induce intense emotions. The study at hand will generate conceptual and operational definitions of sublime emotion toward nature. Taking into consideration the recent research on feelings of awe, an instrument is devised to measure sublime emotion toward nature. The proposed scale's reliability and validity is tested in a sample of 280 participants from the general population of Madrid. Results show that sublime emotion was defined by two conceptual components: awe, and inspiring energy, both obtained using the computer program FACTOR. After reliability and validity analysis, the Sublime Emotion toward Nature (SEN) scale included 18 items, distributed into awe (6 items, α = 0.881) and inspiring energy (12 items, α = 0.933). Awe was defined by feelings of fear, threat, vulnerability, fragility, and respect for nature, which is perceived as vast, powerful, and mysterious. Inspiring energy was defined by feelings of vitality, joy, energy, oneness, freedom, eternity, and harmony with the universe. The SEN is an adequate instrument to measure transcendent emotions provoked by direct wilderness exposure or memory thereof.

Spanish version of the Children’s Ecological Behavior (CEB) scale / Versión española de la escala de Comportamiento Ecológico para Niños (CEN)

BACKGROUND: Children's pro-ecological behaviors are usually registered using scales based on the idea of a simple connection between attitudes and behaviors. However, this relationship seems to be more complicated. The Children's Ecological Behavior (CEB) Scale has been proposed as an alternative. Based on the Rasch model, it considers the different efforts needed to conduct a series of behaviors. This paper presents an improved adaptation of the CEB to Spanish population. METHOD: We back-translated the CEB into Spanish, increased the number of behaviors and collected data from 6- to 12-year-olds, using a game format procedure. RESULTS: The scale can detect differences in the effort needed to perform various behaviors. Children's pro-ecological attitudes and behaviors are positively related. No relationship was found between parents' and children's pro-ecological attitudes and behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the CEB scale emerges as a reliable tool to measure children's pro-ecological behaviors

ANTECEDENTES: el comportamiento pro-ecológico infantil suele registrarse con escalas basadas en la existencia de una conexión simple entre actitud y comportamiento. Sin embargo, esta relación parece ser más compleja. La escala de Comportamiento Ecológico para Niños (CEN) ha sido propuesta como una alternativa. Basándose en el modelo del Rasch, esta considera que distintas conductas requirieren distinto grado de esfuerzo. Se presenta una adaptación mejorada de la CEN a la población española. MÉTODO: se realizó una traducción inversa de la CEN, se amplió el número de conductas registradas y se recogieron datos con niños (6-12 años), usando un procedimiento de juegos. RESULTADOS: la escala diferencia entre comportamientos que requieren distinto grado de esfuerzo. Existe una relación positiva entre las actitudes y el comportamiento pro-ecológico de los niños. No se encontró relación entre las actitudes y comportamiento pro-ecológico de padres e hijos. CONCLUSIONES: la versión española de la escala CEN es un instrumento fiable para registrar conductas pro-ecológicas infantiles

Spanish version of the Children's Ecological Behavior (CEB) scale.

BACKGROUND: Children's pro-ecological behaviors are usually registered using scales based on the idea of a simple connection between attitudes and behaviors. However, this relationship seems to be more complicated. The Children's Ecological Behavior (CEB) Scale has been proposed as an alternative. Based on the Rasch model, it considers the different efforts needed to conduct a series of behaviors. This paper presents an improved adaptation of the CEB to Spanish population. METHOD: We back-translated the CEB into Spanish, increased the number of behaviors and collected data from 6- to 12-year-olds, using a game format procedure. RESULTS: The scale can detect differences in the effort needed to perform various behaviors. Children's pro-ecological attitudes and behaviors are positively related. No relationship was found between parents' and children's pro-ecological attitudes and behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish version of the CEB scale emerges as a reliable tool to measure children's pro-ecological behaviors.

Spanish version of the new ecological paradigm scale for children.

The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale has been extensively used to measure adults' environmental attitudes. However, it has only recently been adapted for use with children. This paper presents a Spanish version of the NEP Scale for Children, examines children's ecological beliefs according to socio-demographic variables as well as the relationship between children's ecological beliefs and pro-environmental behavior. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted, followed by confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, the instrument's internal consistency was studied and links between environmental attitudes, age, and ecological behavior in children were examined through correlation analyses. The results show that children's ecological worldviews can be described by a dimension called "overall ecocentrism". Analysis of variance demonstrated that children from rural areas exhibit a more ecocentric worldview than those from urban areas. The results also denote gender differences.

Spanish version of the new ecological paradigm scale for children

The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale has been extensively used to measure adults’ environmental attitudes. However, it has only recently been adapted for use with children. This paper presents a Spanish version of the NEP Scale for Children, examines children’s ecological beliefs according to socio-demographic variables as well as the relationship between children’s ecological beliefs and pro-environmental behavior. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted, followed by confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, the instrument’s internal consistency was studied and links between environmental attitudes, age, and ecological behavior in children were examined through correlation analyses. The results show that children’s ecological worldviews can be described by a dimension called «overall ecocentrism». Analysis of variance demonstrated that children from rural areas exhibit a more ecocentric worldview than those from urban areas. The results also denote gender differences (AU)

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