Children and the Environment

The present study examined ecological awareness among preschool children. Three tasks were employed with 3-to 5-year-old boys and girls residing in rural and urban communities: a picture discrimination, a picture arrangement, and a picture comprehension task. It was found the young children are able to identify graphically depicted ecological issues with accuracy, relative to the nature of the task and its level of difficulty. It was also found that boys and girls, within the age range surveyed, were comparably aware of ecological issues. Moreover, no differences were found relative to the children's place of residence. The implications of these findings for ecological education and for advancing our knowledge of the development of ecological attitudes and behavior are discussed.