Participatory school experiences as facilitators for adolescents' ecological behavior

This study investigates how sustainability-related in-school experiences, through psycho-social variables, influence adolescents' out-of-school general ecological intentions and behaviors. Data from a nationally representative sample of 2361 Finnish adolescents was used to test a hypothetical model. Effects of school experiences were studied using structural equation modeling. Excellent model fit showed that in-school agency and prosocial experience enhance adolescents' pro-environmental values, personal norms and self-efficacy for general ecological behavior. Ecological and pro-environmental intentions and behaviors outside of school were strengthened by the psycho-social constructs, especially by pro-environmental value and self-efficacy. In-school agency and prosocial experiences had stronger effects on psycho-social constructs, while the effect of ecological experiences was low. The model suggests that school's sustainability education should not provide only ecological experiences, but more importantly connect pro-social and agency experiences through an approach that emphasizes pro-environmental values and self-efficacy for general ecological behavior. •A representative sample of Finnish adolescents was used to study self-reported general ecological behavior.•The theory of planned behavior was used as a leitmotif.•In-school experiences were added to test their effects on self-reported general ecological behavior.•Prosocial and agency experiences rather than ecological experiences have important effects.