IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i14p11260-d1197683.html

Promoting Climate Change Awareness with High School Students for a Sustainable Community

Author

Listed:
  • Minou Ella Mebane

    (Faculty of Law, Giustino Fortunato University, 82100 Benevento, Italy)

  • Maura Benedetti

    (Department of Human Sciences, Lumsa University, 00193 Rome, Italy)

  • Daniela Barni

    (Department of Human and Social Sciences, Bergamo University, 24044 Bergamo, Italy)

  • Donata Francescato

    (Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

Climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity, and understanding and addressing climate change represent important goals in creating a sustainable community. As several studies have underlined, in order to enhance eco-friendly behaviors, it is pivotal to understand people’s emotional reactions to climate change and develop actions that build a planetary sense of community. In this context, the present pilot study aims to propose a new psychological environmental intervention program seeking to increase students’ awareness of climate change and related emotions and to promote students’ empowerment. It was carried out in Italy, from January to April 2022, involved 25 high school students, and was conducted by environmental scientists and community psychologists who were experts in affective education and empowerment. The program was composed of two different modules: the first module focused on sustainable development and climate change’s effects on the environment and health as well as positive and negative emotions related to climate change; and the second was a participatory laboratory on actions that can be taken to protect the environment. An assessment of the intervention showed its efficacy in terms of the students’ competences as environmental citizens, their comprehension of emotions related to climate change, and the development of climate change projects. Given the small sample size and the pre-experimental nature of our contribution, future studies on a larger scale and with a control group are needed to confirm our preliminary results.

Suggested Citation

  • Minou Ella Mebane & Maura Benedetti & Daniela Barni & Donata Francescato, 2023. "Promoting Climate Change Awareness with High School Students for a Sustainable Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11260-:d:1197683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11260/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11260/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anthony A. Leiserowitz, 2005. "American Risk Perceptions: Is Climate Change Dangerous?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1433-1442, December.
    2. Andreas Ch. Hadjichambis & Demetra Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, 2020. "Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ): The Development and Validation of an Evaluation Instrument for Secondary School Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-12, January.
    3. Árvai, Joseph & Gregory, Robin, 2021. "Beyond choice architecture: a building code for structuring climate risk management decisions," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(4), pages 556-575, October.
    4. Transport and Traffic Planners (TTPI) Inc. & Inc. CPI Energy Phils., 2010. "A Strategic Approach to Climate Change in the Philippines," World Bank Publications - Reports 27900, The World Bank Group.
    5. Jeffrey J. Schott & Meera Fickling, 2010. "Revisiting the NAFTA Agenda on Climate Change," Policy Briefs PB10-19, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    6. Anne M. van Valkengoed & Linda Steg, 2019. "Meta-analyses of factors motivating climate change adaptation behaviour," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(2), pages 158-163, February.
    7. Faure, Corinne & Guetlein, Marie-Charlotte & Schleich, Joachim & Tu, Gengyang & Whitmarsh, Lorraine & Whittle, Colin, 2022. "Household acceptability of energy efficiency policies in the European Union: Policy characteristics trade-offs and the role of trust in government and environmental identity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    8. Miloslav Kolenatý & Roman Kroufek & Jan Činčera, 2022. "What Triggers Climate Action: The Impact of a Climate Change Education Program on Students’ Climate Literacy and Their Willingness to Act," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-20, August.
    9. Judy Lawrence & Marjolijn Haasnoot & Robert Lempert, 2020. "Climate change: making decisions in the face of deep uncertainty," Nature, Nature, vol. 580(7804), pages 456-456, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhao, Xialing & Fan, Linlin & Xu, Yilan, 2025. "Peer Effects on Climate Change Beliefs," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360759, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Ramesh Shrestha & Rajan Kadel & Shreeya Shakya & Nishna Nyachhyon & Bhupesh Kumar Mishra, 2025. "Awareness and Understanding of Climate Change for Environmental Sustainability Using a Mix-Method Approach: A Study in the Kathmandu Valley," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Dazhe Dong & Xiaoyu Liang & Jiahao Ge & Jianzhen Zhang, 2026. "Conceptualizing climate change awareness as a complex system: exploring adolescents’ climate change awareness based on longitudinal network analysis," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Mariana Cernicova-Buca & Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir & Vasile Gherheș & Adina Palea, 2023. "Students’ Awareness Regarding Environment Protection in Campus Life: Evidence from Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Naghmeh Mohammadpourlima & Mikael Nygård & Mehdi P. Heris, 2025. "Unlocking Climate Action: A Systematic Review of Pathways to Climate‐Friendly Cities Through Behavioral Change," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(S1), pages 517-544, November.
    6. Maryam W. Fasfous & Mohamed N. Abdel-Fattah & Sarah A. Ibrahim, 2025. "The Impact of Climate Change Awareness on Fertility Intentions in Palestinian Society: Mediating Role of Threat Perception," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(8), pages 1-19, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abinash Bhattachan & Matthew D. Jurjonas & Priscilla R. Morris & Paul J. Taillie & Lindsey S. Smart & Ryan E. Emanuel & Erin L. Seekamp, 2019. "Linking residential saltwater intrusion risk perceptions to physical exposure of climate change impacts in rural coastal communities of North Carolina," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(3), pages 1277-1295, July.
    2. Marina Baroni & Giulia Valdrighi & Andrea Guazzini & Mirko Duradoni, 2025. "Eco-Sensitive Minds: Clustering Readiness to Change and Environmental Sensitivity for Sustainable Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-29, June.
    3. Canan Demir Yıldız, 2025. "Raising Climate Heroes: Ecological Game Camp —A Mixed-Methods Study on Experiential Climate Education in Children and Adults," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-26, September.
    4. Hilary Byerly Flint & Paul Cada & Patricia A. Champ & Jamie Gomez & Danny Margoles & James R. Meldrum & Hannah Brenkert-Smith, 2022. "You vs. us: framing adaptation behavior in terms of private or social benefits," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 1-17, September.
    5. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1gt6nhe6vs8pbb86oi81bt6838 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Heidi E Brown & Erika Austhof & Paula M Luz & Daniel B Ferguson, 2023. "Economics, health, or environment: What motivates individual climate action?," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(8), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Alfred Olfert & Gérard Hutter, 2025. "Strategic Communication and Evaluation to Improve the Capacities of Local Administration for Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study on Dresden, Germany," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 61-79, March.
    8. Dimitrios Vlachopoulos & Rannveig Björk Thorkelsdóttir & Despoina Schina & Jóna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, 2023. "Teachers’ Experience and Perceptions of Sustainable Digitalization in School Education: An Existential Phenomenological Study of Teachers in Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Iceland, and The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-17, September.
    9. Tamar Arieli & Gad Schaffer, 2023. "Ideology, environment, and open space in conflict arenas: The discrepancies and harmonizing strategies of West Bank Israeli settlers," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(7), pages 1441-1458, November.
    10. Fanghella, Valeria & Schleich, Joachim & Sebi, Carine, 2026. "Populism and support of onshore wind energy: Explaining different perspectives from the left and right," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    11. Ashi Perveen, 2025. "Bridging the Climate Finance Gap: Behavioral and Market Barriers to Efficient Climate Risk Pricing in Emerging Economies," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(6), pages 6392-6426, June.
    12. Xie, Li & Li, Siyi, 2024. "Climate risk and energy-saving technology innovation: Evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    13. Ding, Yihong & Robinson, Elizabeth & Balcombe, Kelvin, 2025. "The role of experience in climate adaptation: Evidence from a field experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(PB).
    14. Gil-Clavel, Sofia & Wagenblast, Thorid & Filatova, Tatiana, 2023. "Farmers’ Incremental and Transformational Climate Change Adaptation in Different Regions: A Natural Language Processing Comparative Literature Review," SocArXiv 3dp5e, Center for Open Science.
    15. Loredana Antronico & Roberto Coscarelli & Francesco De Pascale & Dante Di Matteo, 2020. "Climate Change and Social Perception: A Case Study in Southern Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-24, August.
    16. Ian G. J. Dawson & Johnnie E. V. Johnson, 2017. "Does Size Matter? A Study of Risk Perceptions of Global Population Growth," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 65-81, January.
    17. Odou, Philippe & Schill, Marie, 2020. "How anticipated emotions shape behavioral intentions to fight climate change," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 243-253.
    18. Osberghaus, Daniel & Botzen, W.J. Wouter & Kesternich, Martin, 2025. "The intention-behavior gap in climate change adaptation: Evidence from longitudinal survey data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    19. Willem Van Rensburg & Brian W. Head, 2017. "Climate Change Scepticism: Reconsidering How to Respond to Core Criticisms of Climate Science and Policy," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(4), pages 21582440177, December.
    20. Michael R. Greenberg & Marc D. Weiner & Robert Noland & Jeanne Herb & Marjorie Kaplan & Anthony J. Broccoli, 2014. "Public Support for Policies to Reduce Risk After Hurricane Sandy," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(6), pages 997-1012, June.
    21. Kerstin Katharina Zander & Duy Nguyen & Stephen Thomas Garnett, 2025. "A decade of German heatwave data reveals shift in local impact perception," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1-26, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11260-:d:1197683. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.