Intergenerational association of environmental concern: Evidence of parents' and children's concern

To understand how young people develop environmental concern, this article investigates the relationship between parents' environmental concern and those of their children. Using 2006 survey data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), featuring nationally representative samples from 16 countries, this study provides evidence that parents' environmental concern has an important influence on children's environmental concern. The influence of parents in this realm reflects the parent equivalent socialization hypothesis and applies for both boys and girls. However, girls are more sensitive to the intergenerational association of their mothers and fathers. Informative campaigns about the environment in schools also contribute to increase children's environmental concern. These results offer interesting implications for both research and practice.