In a first step to construct a model of the development of an environmental concern, literature is reviewed regarding children’s understanding of environmental processes, their motivations for engagement with the physical world, and their moral development. Political socialization, which hear upon their likelihood of taking action, is also reviewed. Connections between development in these fields and the development of environmental concern are suggest. It is proposed that there are three motivations for environmental concern, with three separate but overlapping paths of development. The direction of development that is desired depends upon either of two opposing vision of the solution to out environmental crisis.

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Title: The Development of Children’s Concern for the Environment

Author(s): Roger Hart, Louise Chawla

Publication Date: 1982

Publisher: Zeitschrift fur Umweltpolitik, International Institute for Environment & Society, Berlin