Social Influence by Parents on Children's Waste Reduction Behavior

Kayo Yorifuji
Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University
（Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya-City, 464-8601 Japan）


Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine what aspects of children's environmental cognition and behavior are influenced by social factors relating to their parents? Two hundred and seventy six pairs of 4th to 6th grade children and their caregivers（or parents）were surveyed in two elementary schools through questionnaires. The major findings were as follows. Parent-child conversations had only a weak effect on arousing children's environmental conciousness. Praising or advising by parents had a little effect on facilitating children's waste reduction behavior. Parents' waste reduction behavior had a great influence on children's behavior. The results indicate that children acquire waste reduction behavior by imitating parents' behavior in order to meet parents' expectation.


Key words: waste reduction behavior, informational normative influence, school children, environmental-conscious behavior, observational learning