Examining the Relationship between Environmental Education and Pro-Environmental Behavior in Regular Basic Education Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

In recent decades, a series of environmental problems such as pollution, climate change and the loss of biodiversity are being perceived. Given this context, the need to implement strategies arises, such as environmental education, to mitigate the mentioned problems. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine if environmental education is related to the pro-environmental behavior of regular basic education students in the Peruvian Amazon. The research approach was quantitative, the design was non-experimental, and the scope was cross-sectional correlational. The sample was obtained of 293 students of the seventh cycle of regular basic education who were administered the Environmental Education Questionnaire and the Environmental Behavior Questionnaire, instruments with adequate metric properties. According to the results, the students were characterized by perceiving that the environmental education that was implemented in the educational institutions was partially adequate. Similarly, pro-environmental behavior was found to be unusual. On the other hand, it was found that the Pearson correlation coefficient between both variables was 0.877, and the p-value was below the significance level (p < 0.05). It was concluded that there is a direct and significant relationship between environmental education and the pro-environmental behavior of regular basic education students in the Peruvian Amazon.

Keywords

• environmental education
• pro-environmental behavior
• students
• sustainable development
• regular basic education
• environmental problems