More is Not Always Better - A Study of Country-Level Factors Associated with Adolescents’ Environmental Attitudes Using a Multilevel Analysis of PISA 2006

Oct 15, 2026

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Environmental problems have intensified into a planetary crisis, with scientific evidence linking the crisis to human activity. Growing interest focuses on what shapes pro-environmental attitudes, yet adolescent research remains limited and country-level evidence shows mixed results. This study tests whether three country-level factors—national consumption, national average environmental knowledge, and national income—predict students’ environmental attitudes using multilevel modeling. Results indicate negative links for national consumption and environmental knowledge after accounting for individual factors, with no significant association for national income.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

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SPECIAL ISSUE Learning Assessments for Sustainability? Exploring the Interaction between Two Global Movements education policy analysis archives A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal Arizona State University | Volume 29 Number 125 | September 27 , 2021 | ISSN 1068-2341 | | --- | --- | --- | More is Not Always Better: A Study of Country-Level Factors Associated with Adolescents’ Environmental Attitudes Using a Multilevel Analysis of PISA 2006 Byoung-gyu Gong University of Utah & Yi Zheng Arizona State University United States Citation: Gong, B., & Zheng, Y. (2021). More is not always better: A study of country-level factors associated with adolescents’ environmental attitudes using a multilevel analysis of PISA 2006. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(125). [https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.4846](https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.4846) This article is part of the special issue Learning Assessments for Sustainability? Exploring the Interaction between Two Global Movements guest edited by Oren Pizmony-Levy and Dafna Gan. Abstract: In recent decades, environmental problems have rapidly worsened to become a planetary crisis, and mounting scientific evidence supports that this crisis is anthropogenic. With the growing concern over the anthropogenic ecological crisis, there has been more attention to the factors influencing people’s pro-environmental attitudes. However, limited research on the adolescent population exists, and country-level factors were rarely explored with mixed findings. This study examines whether and how three country-level factors of national consumption, national average environmental knowledge, and national income level significantly impact students’ environmental attitudes, using multilevel modeling methods. The analysis results show that adolescents’ environmental attitudes are negatively related to the national consumption and environmental knowledge level after controlling for important individual-level factors while having no significant relationship with the national income level. This study concludes with a discussion on the future direction of environmental education and studies. Keywords: PISA; ecological footprint; environmental attitude; environmental knowledge; multilevel modeling Más no siempre es mejor: un estudio de los factores a nivel de país asociados con las actitudes ambientales de los adolescentes utilizando un análisis multinivel de PISA 2006 Resumen: Con la creciente preocupación por la actual crisis ecológica antropogénica, se haprestado más atención a los factores que influyen en las actitudes proambientales de las personas. Sin embargo, existe una investigación limitada sobre la población adolescente, y los factores a nivel de país rara vez se exploraron con hallazgos mixtos. Este estudio examina si, y cómo, tres factores anivel de país del consumo nacional, el conocimiento ambiental promedio nacional y el nivel de ingresos nacionales impactan significativamente en las actitudes ambientales de los estudiantes, utilizando métodos de modelado multinivel. Los resultados muestran que las actitudes ambientales de los adolescentes se relacionan negativamente con el consumo nacional y el nivel de conocimiento ambiental después de controlar por factores importantes a nivel individual, sin tener una relación significativa con el nivel de ingreso nacional. Se presenta una discusión de los hallazgos en relacióncon la dirección futura de la educación y los estudios ambientales. Palabras clave: PISA; huella ecológica; actitud ambiental; conocimiento ambiental; modelado multinivel Mais nem sempre é melhor: um estudo de fatores em nível de país associados às atitudes ambientais dos adolescentes usando uma análise multinível do PISA 2006 Resumo: Com a crescente preocupação com a atual crise ecológica antropogênica, tem havido maisatenção aos fatores que influenciam as atitudes pró-ambientais das pessoas. No entanto, existe umapesqu

FAQs

What research question does the study address?

The study examines whether and how three country-level factors—national consumption, national average environmental knowledge, and national income—affect students’ environmental attitudes.

Which factors show significant relationships with adolescents’ environmental attitudes?

Adolescents’ environmental attitudes are negatively related to national consumption and national environmental knowledge after controlling for key individual-level factors.

What is the main conclusion about national income level?

National income level has no statistically significant relationship with adolescents’ environmental attitudes in the multilevel analysis.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca