ENVIRONMENTAL THOUGHTS OF FILIPINO CHILDREN

DAISY MAY Q. SANTOS
MA PSYCHOLOGY (JULY 2010)
Department of Psychology

This qualitative study explored the components and processes involved in the environmental though of Filipino children. It looked into the possible influences of a child’s stage in the lifespan (middle and late childhood), gender (male or female) and location (rural or urban) and the possible role of nature experiences in the formation and content of environmental thought. The environmental components of thought that surfaced ware: identification and classification of plants and animals, knowledge of geographical forms, knowledge of environmental phenomena, knowledge of environmental issues and problems, feelings and attitudes towards the environment and spiritual aspect of the environment. A total of 80 children participated in the study with parent’s and children’s consent. An equal representation of gender, stage in lifespan and location was employed. It was observed that children in the late childhood had more environmental knowledge that those in the middle childhood. The male children were also found to be more physical in the environmental explorations that their female counterpart. Also, the rural-based school children appeared to have the empirical database for environmental knowledge and experience more that the urban children who had more mediated and vicarious environmental experiences. In sum, thus study came up with the conclusion that gender, lifespan stage and location can influence the environmental though of Filipino children.

Keywords: environment, children, education, rural, urban, stage in lifespan, gender