The Inconvenient Youth Revisited: Teens, Parents, and Clean Air Conversations and Action.
Downloadable full-text available through SUNY Albany Interlibrary loan.
This article explores the influence teens can have on their families and peers regarding daily behaviors, specifically how they drive and its effect on the air around them. A local high school poster contest inspired Utah teenagers to design messages about carpooling, public transportation, and reducing idling while driving, which in turn led to the students impacting how their parents and families behaved. The article likens this effect to the Wall Street Journal article about how students would bring home their in-school environmental programming and educate their parents to get them to improve their behaviors.
While there are many anecdotes about how teenagers have motivated their families to make small changes in their daily habits that can benefit the health of our air, the article is written more for adults. Some teenagers may find the analysis and examples in this article inspiring, yet others may feel it is directed more towards their parents or elders and therefore not very helpful to them.
Brain McCann, R. G. H., Stafford, E. R., & Morgan, P. (2018). The Inconvenient Youth Revisited: Teens, Parents, and Clean Air Conversations and Action. Sustainability., 11(6), 284–297. https://doi.org/10.1089/sus.2018.0019
Littering in public places is examined in this study of 24 Israeli teens and adults who are either environmentally inclined or indifferent. The authors discuss environmental literacy, personal responsibility, personal empowerment, social belonging, and the internal locus of control, with a focus on the Take the Garbage With You initiative, which aims to raise public awareness surrounding littering.
Of particular interest are quotes from the adults and teens in the study, who share their thought processes behind their actions.
Teens and adults who work in any kind of sustainability environment and are looking to motivate their volunteers or employees would benefit from reading this article, as it explores the psychology behind whether people litter or not, which could be extrapolated to other environmental concerns.However, as it has a small sample size and includes only Israelis, there could be cultural differences in attitudes and behavior if this study was replicated elsewhere or on a larger scale.
Batzon, N., & Zion, M. (2024). From external to internal locus of control – identifying attitudes among adults and teens to foster environmental responsibility towards the trash in the public domain. Environmental Education Research, 30(5), 720–736. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2023.2202364
The authors use the COM-B model, (Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation-Behaviour), as a framework to examine the behaviors of about 600 young people (ages 15-17 and also 18-35) in Chiavari, a coastal village in Italy that has been greatly affected by climate change in the form of flooding and landslides at significant financial cost. They sought to find out why or why not these students and young adults engaged in sustainable behaviors such as taking public transportation, reducing food waste, and buying local. Among the findings was that less than half of the participants feel they have the “skills to reduce their burden on the climate.”
This article would be invaluable for educators or climate activists seeking to engage young people in becoming more sustainable, as it is filled with specific data on the participants’ attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Very young adults themselves may find less value in this study as it is extremely technical.
Mezzacapo, U., Voltolina, D., Gencarelli, C., Esposito, G., Mondini, A., Salvati, P., Tondini, S., Carlone, T., Sarretta, A., Galizia, A., Sterlacchini, S., Marchesini, I.. (2025, April 15). Drivers and barriers of sustainable behaviours among young generations in a climate-vulnerable Italian city. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, (121). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105420
Here Dong et al try to find what will make adolescents engage in sustainable behaviors. They examine climate change risk perception, the impact of climate change education, and the role of guilt and anger about climate change, and the “believed usefulness of actions,” or BUA, among other factors. Data gleaned from a questionnaire that included questions about the degree of both willingness to act and BUA regarding direct and indirect actions such as “eat less meat” and “improve home insulation” leads the authors to conclude that cognitive reappraisal can lead to a higher likelihood of young people engaging in pro-environmental behaviors.
Similar to the Mezzacapo article, this would be invaluable for educators or climate activists seeking to engage young people in becoming more engaged in environmental action, as it is filled with specific data on the participants’ attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Very young adults themselves may find less value in this study as it is extremely technical in its description of the study design, implementation, and data analysis.
Dong, X., Geng, L., & Rodríguez Casallas, J. D. (2023). How is cognitive reappraisal related to adolescents’ willingness to act on mitigating climate change? The mediating role of climate change risk perception and believed usefulness of actions. Environmental Education Research, 29(12), 1758–1779. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.2120188
In a study of residential use of curbside composting in San Francisco, Wu et al find that age, subjective time pressure, and household size affect whether people take advantage of the program. They find that younger people, between 18-34, are less likely to take advantage of curbside composting. They highlight the “consistent challenge” of getting young people to participate in environmental activities and posit that as people age, they develop more inclination to engage with community issues. The study concludes with recommendations for” youth leadership in waste management programs to encourage civic engagement for younger generations.”
People involved in composting programs, other waste management programs, or general youth environmental initiatives may find helpful information here about typical (for this case study) attitudes and reasons for low versus high engagement in curbside composting.
Wu, W.-N., Liu, L.-Y., & Brough, C. (2019). No time for composting: Subjective time pressure as a barrier to citizen engagement in curbside composting. Waste Management (Elmsford), 91, 99–107. https://www-sciencedirect-com.libproxy.albany.edu/science/article/pii/S0956053X19302880