IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i13p5548-d1424997.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate Change: Relationship between Knowledge and Perception in Students of an Agricultural-Based University in Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Gloria Anabel Cornejo

    (Department of Environmental Science and Development, Panamerican Agricultural School, Zamorano, Tegucigalpa 11101, Honduras)

  • Pablo Lamiño

    (Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32603, USA
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Bernardo Trejos

    (Department of Environmental Science and Development, Panamerican Agricultural School, Zamorano, Tegucigalpa 11101, Honduras
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that climate change is an unequivocal fact, presenting significant challenges due to its adverse impacts. Understanding climate change is crucial for agricultural students, as climate variability and extreme weather events directly affect agriculture. This study examined agronomy students’ perceptions and knowledge of climate change at a technical university in Cotopaxi, Ecuador. An online structured questionnaire was used to gather data on students’ perceptions and knowledge. The questionnaire had two sections, i.e., perception and knowledge. The perception section employed a Likert scale covering the following six components: skepticism, perceived benefit, economy, environmentalism, perceived risk, and negative effects. The knowledge section included true/false questions across four dimensions, i.e., causes, effects, concepts, and human relationships. The results indicated that most students had a medium level of perception (55.85%) and knowledge (54.25%) regarding climate change. A low but significant correlation was found between perception and knowledge (rs = 0.12, p = 0.02). Based on these findings, the researchers recommend incorporating specific climate change courses to better prepare students for sustainable agricultural development in a changing climate.

Suggested Citation

  • Gloria Anabel Cornejo & Pablo Lamiño & Bernardo Trejos, 2024. "Climate Change: Relationship between Knowledge and Perception in Students of an Agricultural-Based University in Ecuador," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:13:p:5548-:d:1424997
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5548/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/13/5548/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adam Corner & Olga Roberts & Sybille Chiari & Sonja Völler & Elisabeth S. Mayrhuber & Sylvia Mandl & Kate Monson, 2015. "How do young people engage with climate change? The role of knowledge, values, message framing, and trusted communicators," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(5), pages 523-534, September.
    2. Mónica Serrano, 2005. "Emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y estructuras de consumo en España," Revista de Economia Critica, Universidad Pablo de Olavide y Asociacion de Economia Critica, vol. 4, pages 89-114.
    3. 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.
    4. Clark, William C. & Gleick, Peter H., 2010. "Climate Change and the Integrity of Science," Scholarly Articles 9795466, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    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. Sanaa Kaddoura & Rafiq Hijazi & Nadia Dahmani & Reem Nassar, 2025. "Stimulating Environmental and Health Protection Through Utilizing Statistical Methods for Climate Resilience and Policy Integration," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(3), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Deniz Karaelmas & Mükerrem Bahar Başkır & Kübra Tekdamar & Canan Cengiz & Bülent Cengiz, 2025. "University Students’ Perceptions on Climate Change Awareness and Sustainable Environments Through an Unsupervised Clustering Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-22, October.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Susana Ferreira, 2024. "Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change: Economic Impacts and Adaptation Policies," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 207-231, October.
    6. 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.
    7. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2010-039 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. 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.
    9. Xie, Li & Li, Siyi, 2024. "Climate risk and energy-saving technology innovation: Evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    10. Mona Frank & Philipp Brauner & Linda Engelmann & Martina Ziefle, 2025. "Mapping behavioral restraint: a dual perspective on individual actions for climate and environmental sustainability," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 1-15, December.
    11. Mirko Winkler & Martin Röösli & Martina Ragettli & Guéladio Cissé & Pie Müller & Jürg Utzinger & Laura Perez, 2015. "Mitigating and adapting to climate change: a call to public health professionals," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(6), pages 631-632, September.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. 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).
    15. Benedetta Barchielli & Clarissa Cricenti & Francesca Gallè & Elita Anna Sabella & Fabrizio Liguori & Giovanna Da Molin & Giorgio Liguori & Giovanni Battista Orsi & Anna Maria Giannini & Stefano Ferrac, 2022. "Climate Changes, Natural Resources Depletion, COVID-19 Pandemic, and Russian-Ukrainian War: What Is the Impact on Habits Change and Mental Health?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Yang, Junqi & Geng, Jiang-Bo, 2025. "Dissecting the financial impact of climate risk," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    19. Tanja Russell, 2024. "A ‘greenhouse affect’? Exploring young Australians’ emotional responses to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(5), pages 1-20, May.
    20. D. Liliana González-Hernández & Raúl A. Aguirre-Gamboa & Erik W. Meijles, 2023. "The role of climate change perceptions and sociodemographics on reported mitigation efforts and performance among households in northeastern Mexico," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1853-1875, February.
    21. Mohammed Laeequddin & Waheed Kareem Abdul & Vinita Sahay & Aviral Kumar Tiwari, 2022. "Factors That Influence the Safe Disposal Behavior of E-Waste by Electronics Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, April.

    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:16:y:2024:i:13:p:5548-:d:1424997. 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.