Perceived practices and attitudes of the Sri Lankan preschool children pertaining to environmental protection

Abstract

Perceptions of the environment that young children acquire in their early childhood function as a base for their holistic development. Studies convey that if children do not develop a sense of respect and caring for the environment during their early years, they are at risk of never developing such attitudes later in life. Therefore, educators, primary caregivers of children and environmental proponents should address and assess the frequency, nature, and quality of child-environment interactions during early childhood. However, research studies carried out to investigate children’s sense of environmental protection is almost nonexistent in the Sri Lankan context. The present study explores the preschool children’s perceived practices and attitudes pertaining to environment protection using a two point pictorial rating scale (12 statements, 6 pairs). Participants were 34 preschool children, 12 boys (M = 3.91; S.D = .539) and 21 girls (M = 4.19; S.D = .602), from Colombo. The research was conducted, adhering to the ethical standards of test administration for young children. After listening to their preschool teacher instruction the children were requested to put stickers against the appropriate picture which indicated their preference. Results conveyed that the majority of the children have said that they do not leave the water running when they brush their teeth (28, 82.4%), love animals (31, 91.2%), like to play outside (23, 67.6%), pick trash (32, 94.1%), like to plant things (31, 91.2), turn the lights off when they leave a room (28, 82.4%). When children’s perceived practices and attitudes of the environment was calculated the scores ranged between 9 to 12 (M = 11.088; S.D = 0.996), conveying that the majority of the children have positive attitudes and perceived practices pertaining to environmental protection.