Ninth graders and climate change: Attitudes towards consequences, views on mitigation, and predictors of willingness to act

The aim of this study is to examine Finnish ninth graders’ attitudes

towards the consequences of climate change, their views on

climate change mitigation and the impact of a set of selected

predictors on their willingness to act in climate change mitigation.

Students (N = 549) from 11 secondary schools participated in the

questionnaire-based study. The results show that the students

experience climate change as a risk. Although these students find

climate change mitigation relevant, there is room for improvement

in terms of their own willingness to act. Interest in environmental

issues, the perceived relevance of mitigation and views on the

design and contents of climate change education are identified

as important positive predictors of students’ willingness to act,

which has implications for designing learning in climate change

education.