Interventions Promoting Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Children: A Meta-Analysis and a Research Agenda

Adults resist change in their pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs); how can these behaviors be promoted in children? We reviewed studies that measure the effectiveness of interventions fostering PEBs in children. Sixty-five studies included a quantitative PEB measure and tested the effectiveness of an intervention (experimental manipulation comparing a treatment to a control group or testing its impact with a pre/post assessment), aimed at fostering PEBs in children. A meta-analysis of the 76 effects sizes revealed that interventions do increase PEBs among children (Hedges’ g = 0.53). Interventions yielded greater effect sizes when actual and not self-reported behavior was measured, however the former are particularly scarce in the literature. We found evidence that intervention effectiveness decreases with children’s age. A research agenda is proposed that calls for theoretical and methodological diversification, and the need to study actual and not only self-reported behavior, with interventions that start earlier in children’s socialization processes.