Keele Research Repository

This study investigates the potential for children to influence their parents environmentally responsible behaviours following their involvement in a month long environmental education programme (eep). The locus of interest has been approached from two different views, parents and children, applying a mixed methods approach for data collection and analysis. The use of childrens diaries and pre and post programme parent questionnaires formed a crucial part of the study to gauge the existence of influence from children to parents and the environmentally responsible behaviours which followed as a consequence. These results suggest the existence of a relationship dynamic between parents and children that is influencing their beliefs and behaviours. Interestingly, parents engaged in a significantly greater frequency of environmentally responsible behaviours after the eep. This relationship between environmental beliefs and behaviours of parents and children warrants further research to better understand the roots, dynamics and directionality of the influence. A deeper understanding of this relationship will help refine intergenerational environmental education programs that aim to transfer environmental knowledge between students and their parents. This study also uncovered a variety of strategies use by children to engage their parents. The use of a green diary offers a potential vehicle for engaging parents in the eep outside the school classroom. The use of intergenerational practises deigned to be embedded within programmes, offer opportunities for environmental messages to go beyond the initial audience and into the family home to promote environmentally responsible behaviours.