Does environmental education benefit environmental outcomes in children and adolescents? A meta-analysis

Young people can be agents of sustainable change. To this end, environmental education programs aim to
promote their environmental knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. We synthesized five decades of
research into the effectiveness of environmental education for children and adolescents. We searched PsycINFO,
ERIC, and Scopus and identified 169 studies (512 effect sizes; 176,007 participants) conducted in 43 countries,
across 6 continents. Environmental education significantly improved environmental knowledge (g = 0.953),
attitudes (g = 0.384), intentions (g = 0.256), and—mostly self-reported—behavior (g = 0.410). Heterogeneity in
effect sizes was substantial; none of the tested moderators (including participant age, educational approach, and
study design) accounted for this variance. Our findings demonstrate the potential for environmental education to
improve students’ environmental knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behavior. They also reveal methodo-
logical challenges for the field. Future research priorities include identifying effective environmental education
components and approaches.