The impact of parenthood on environmental attitudes and behaviour: a longitudinal investigation of the legacy hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: Willingness to engage in sustainable actions may be limited by the psychological distance of climate change. In this study, we test the legacy hypothesis, which holds that having children leads parents to consider the legacy left to offspring in respect of environmental quality. Using the Understanding Society dataset, a longitudinal survey representative of the UK population (n = 18,176), we assess how having children may change people's individual environmental attitudes and behaviour. Results indicate that having a new child is associated with a small decrease in the frequency of a few environmental behaviours. Only parents with already high environmental concern show a small increase in the desire to act more sustainably after the birth of their first child. Overall, the

SUBMITTER: Thomas GO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5846977 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature