An Evaluation of The Awareness of College Students Towards Environment

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study has been carried out to evaluate the environmental awareness of college students and to find out the factors that affect their awareness. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out a college between March and April, 2018. The scope of the study consist of 450 students at the high school, and 336 students are reacted by including all the scope in to the research (74.7%). Survey form, socio-demographic features of the students have been placed and the environmental awareness scale. RESULTS: The average age of the students participated in the study is 20.78+-2.48. The average environmental awareness level of the participants between the age 17-19 has been found as 51.20+-9.42 while this number is 54.90+-8.65 with the age group at or over 23 (p<0.05). 26.5% of the students have taken environment class at school. The environmental awareness point average of those who took environmental courses was 53.03 +- 7.97, while those who did not take 52.36 +- 9.52 (p <0.05). The students have shown air pollution as the top environmental problem in the world and the decreasing number of forests as the biggest is in Turkey. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: As the age progressed and those who received training on the environment increased, the mean score of awareness increased. It will be beneficial to have educational about the topics to increase the environmental awareness of the students.

Keywords

• air pollution
• awareness
• college
• environment