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Earth mothers (and fathers): Examining generativity and environmental concerns in adolescents and their parents

Concern for future generations supports environmental behavior in parents and their teens

In the developmental literature, concern for and care of the next generation is referred to as generativity. Research suggests that adults who are actively engaged in care for the environment cite a generative concern about the state of the natural world being left to future generations as a significant motivator. In part due to reports of diminishing environmental engagement in youth populations, the expression of generative concern within families is an area of growing interest. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between generativity and the development of environmental activities and concerns among teenagers and their parents.

The study was conducted in Ontario, Canada and included a sample of 44 families that self-selected to participate through an ad in the paper. The parents and adolescents (14-16 years old) in the participating families completed, and returned by mail, questionnaires that were based, in part, on existing measurement tools.

The results were complex and multifaceted, though generally supportive of the authors’ proposed theoretical model. For parents, higher generativity scores were positively associated with an emphasis on environmental values and practices. These parental environmental values and behaviors were the strongest predictor of adolescent environmental behaviors in this study. This relationship between parental environmental behavior and adolescent environmental behavior was thought to “reflect both parental modeling, as well as actual parental engagement with the adolescent in some of these specific environmental activities.” Adolescent environmental and prosocial behaviors were also found to be influenced by their own level of generative concern, which was, in turn, influenced by an authoritative parenting style (high warmth, high demand) and the generative concern of the mother.

This is one of the first explorations into family generativity and its connection to environmental values and behaviors. Additional research is recommended.

 

Citation

Pratt, M. W., Norris, J. E., Alisat, S., Bisson, E., (2013). Earth mothers (and fathers): Examining generativity and environmental concerns in adolescents and their parents. Journal of Moral Education, 42(1), 12-27.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2012.714751

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