About the research
Since the 1990s, concern about environmental issues in the UK has fluctuated. At times it has been headline news and a source of widespread attention, while at other times it has been a topic primarily of interest to specialists. This research examines what’s behind this fluctuation by looking at levels of environmental concern in the United Kingdom between 1991 and 2009. It also investigates how changing attention to environmental issues relates to occupational status, educational level, political beliefs, gender and presence of children.
The main finding of the study is that environmental concern on average declined slightly between 1991 and 2009, but also that interest in politics, nonvoting, voting left-wing, and smaller parties offset that decline. The 2008–2009 sweep of the National Child Development Study coincided with the beginning of the current financial crisis and it is noteworthy that the environmental concern question that showed the greatest change over time was the one that set environmental concerns against economic ones. Nonetheless, the continuing importance of the environment as a socio-political issue is underlined by these findings.
Methodology
Using item response theory models on these three sweeps of the National Child Development Study, the researchers measured public levels of environmental concern by examining responses to three broad statements:
(1) “We should tackle problems in the environment even if this means slower economic growth.”
(2) “Preserving the environment is more important than any other political issue today.”
(3) “Problems with the environment are not as serious as people claim.”
Then, using latent growth curve models (LGCM) they estimated the pattern of change for environmental concern across time. Finally, gender, economic activity, education, presence of children, interest in politics and voting choices were introduced as covariates into the LGCM.
Publications
Melis, G., Elliot, M. and Shryane, N. (2014) ‘Environmental Concern Over Time: Evidence from the Longitudinal Analysis of a British Cohort Study from 1991 to 2008’, Social Science Quarterly. doi: 10.1111/ssqu.12107