Understanding and Unleashing Adolescents' Eco-Friendly Behavior

Project Information

GREENTEENS

Grant agreement ID: 864137

DOI

10.3030/864137

EC signature date 16 April 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 30 June 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 999 349,00

EU contribution

€ 1 999 349,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - GREENTEENS (Understanding and Unleashing Adolescents' Eco-Friendly Behavior)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Today’s young people are uniquely vulnerable to the climate crisis. They are the first generation to grow up in a world where they are faced with tangible impacts of global warming, such as heatwaves, floods, and droughts. While young people are not responsible for climate change, many see themselves as part of the solution.

Adolescents, in particular, have the potential to be at the forefront of the large-scale sustainable change that the world needs. As a group, adolescents are concerned about climate change, driven to make positive contributions to society, and able to make lifestyle changes with apparent ease. And yet, this does not mean that most adolescents consistently act on their concerns in their everyday lives. In fact, research has revealed an “adolescent dip” in sustainable behaviour (e.g. sustainable consumption, energy conservation). What explains this paradox? What can be done to help unleash adolescents’ potential for sustainable engagement?

We argue that adolescents often fail to construe sustainable engagement as relevant to what they care deeply about in their everyday lives—in particular, their enhanced desires to feel autonomous and gain status among their peers. As such, they often lack a sense of urgency to act on their climate concerns. This proposition does not imply a status quo, however. Instead, it offers unique opportunity to foster adolescents’ internal motivation for sustainable engagement.

In the GREENTEENS project, we develop and scrutinize the sustainability motive-alignment hypothesis to understand and discover new ways to promote adolescents’ sustainable engagement. To establish generalizability and facilitate international applicability, we do so in adolescents from three countries: the Netherlands, China, and Colombia. We also test a potential boundary to sustainability motive-alignment—i.e. climate skepticism, or the tendency for subsets of adolescents to doubt if climate change is real, impactful, or caused by human behaviour.

The overall objectives of GREENTEENS are to test:
(1) How the development of adolescents’ sustainable engagement is predicted by their construal of such engagement as being aligned with their motives for autonomy and peer status (i.e. motive-alignment).
(2) How the effects of policies to promote adolescents’ sustainable engagement depend on how whether they harness, or work against, these motives.
(3) When and why climate skepticism develops in adolescents, how it influences motive-alignment, and how it can be prevented.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To address objective (1), we have launched a longitudinal study in representative samples of adolescents from three countries (the Netherlands, China, Colombia), in collaboration with data company Kantar. At the study start (Time 1), participants were N = 1256 adolescents from the Netherlands (48% girls); N = 1800 adolescents from China (42% girls); and N = 1862 adolescents from Colombia (50% girls). All participants ranged in age from 12 to 14. They completed surveys on sustainability motive-alignment, sustainable behaviour, and climate skepticism, among others. So far we have completed two waves of data collection in The Netherlands and Colombia, and one wave of data collection in China.

To address objective (2), we have conducted a series of experiments in controlled research settings. These experiments have delivered proofs of concept for motive-alignment techniques that have potential to promote adolescents’ sustainable outcomes. We found that the techniques that we developed to harness adolescents’ autonomy motive effectively promote some forms of sustainable behaviour, but not other forms. In particular, promoting high cost sustainable behaviour is still challenging. We additionally finalised a meta-analysis that synthesises the available evidence on the effectiveness of common policy (i.e. environmental education) to promote sustainable outcomes in young people. We found that such policy can be effective with small to medium-sized effects, a result that is encouraging but also suggests ample room for improvement.

To address objective (3) we have analysed the Time 1 data from the longitudinal study and established that (a) already at age 12-14, adolescents differ in their level of climate skepticism, (b) such climate skepticism is associated with adolescents' basic values, especially self-enhancement values, and (c) these patterns are largely similar among adolescents from the Netherlands, China, and Colombia. We have tested and found no evidence so far that the effects of motive-alignment on sustainable outcomes depend on adolescents’ level of climate skepticism.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In addition to the main results achieved so far (see above), we expect the following results until the end of the project. The research to achieve these results is currently being conducted or prepared.

Objective (1): Upon completion of the longitudinal study (i.e. year 5 of the project), we will be able to identify developmental trajectories in adolescents’ sustainable engagement, and test to what extent these trajectories are predicted by individual differences in motive-alignment. This will provide a rigorous and important test of the sustainability motive-alignment hypothesis, as it informs understanding of how adolescents’ sustainable engagement develops over time.

Objective (2): We will continue with our series of controlled experiments, designed to deliver proofs of concept for techniques to promote adolescents’ sustainable behaviour by harnessing their status motive. We expect the outcomes of this work in the upcoming months (i.e. year 3 of the project). Moreover, building on our controlled experiments, we will implement and test the proofs of concept that we developed using field experiments conducted in the context of adolescents’ everyday lives. For example, we will test the added value of incorporating motive-alignment techniques in climate change education programs taught in schools. We expect the first outcomes of this work in the upcoming two years (i.e. year 4 and 5 of the project).

Objective (3): Upon completion of the longitudinal study, we will identify developmental trajectories in climate skepticism and its psychological determinants and drivers (i.e. year 5 of the project). We will further scrutinize the possibility that climate skepticism is a boundary to positive effects of motive-alignment on sustainable behaviour (a possibility that we tested but found no evidence for so far). We will do so both in the longitudinal study and in our field experiments (i.e. year 4 and 5 of the project). Finally, we will explore inoculation techniques to prevent adolescents’ climate skepticism in controlled and field experiments (i.e. year 4 and 5 of the project).

graphical representation of the sustainability motive-alignment hypothesis