ERIC Number: EJ1469046
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1350-4622
EISSN: EISSN-1469-5871
Available Date: 0000-00-00
A Developmental and Ecological Investigation of Preschool Children's Environmental Moral Reasoning
Julia C. Torquati1; Donger Liu1; Hyerim Shin1
Environmental Education Research, v31 n5 p964-980 2025
We investigated direct experiences with nature and socialization as predictors of preschool-aged children's environmental moral reasoning. Children (n = 146; 52.7% male) from three U.S. states completed biophilia and environmental moral reasoning interviews. Parents (n=98) completed surveys about their children's activities in natural areas and their valuing nature experiences. Most children (n = 140, 89.3%) judged throwing trash in a lake as wrong, even if everyone did it (n = 127, 92.9%) and even if it was far away where a rule permitted it (n = 137, 78.1%). "Harm to nature" and "anthropocentric" reasons were children's most frequent justifications. Children's access to a variety of natural areas and their nature knowledge significantly predicted environmental moral reasoning in stepwise multiple regression analysis controlling for demographic factors (F[subscript (5, 57)] = 3.8, p = 0.005), accounting for 19% of the variance. Parents' valuing nature experiences and children's biophilia did not significantly predict children's environmental moral reasoning.
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Moral Values, Predictor Variables, Natural Resources, Socialization, Environment, Value Judgment, Conservation (Environment), Ecology, Knowledge Level, Parent Attitudes, Moral Development, Experience, Interests, Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA