Conservation concern among Australian undergraduates is associated with childhood socio‐cultural experiences

Abstract

Abstract Fostering widespread concern for conservation problems requires a robust understanding of the life experiences that positively contribute to an individual's conservation attitudes and behaviours. However, few studies have assessed a comprehensive range of social and experiential predictors of conservation concern. Using survey responses from 391 undergraduate students enrolled in various course disciplines across Australia, we describe the relationships between five major constructs of early‐life experiences and two measures of conservation concern: a preference for a conservation career and positive conservation attitudes. We find that conservation career preferences are positively associated with childhood preferences for nature‐related books, movies and school subjects, biospheric family value orientations and environmental volunteering. Conservation attitudes were positively associated with biospheric family value orientations and environmental volunteering. Both constructs were negatively associated with egoistic family values and childhood experiences of nature were not a significant factor in either of our models. This suggests that limited nature experiences do not necessarily impede the development of conservation concern in young Australians, and that family values and experiences with environmental organizations, nature‐related storylines and school subjects may help to foster greater conservation concern. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Keywords

• childhood
• conservation career
• conservation psychology
• environmental attitudes
• environmental education
• environmental psychology