IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES – A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MALES AND FEMALES IN UTTARAKHAND, INDIA

Abstract

The present study was conducted to find the impact of environmental awareness on environmental attitudes. The research was done on 600 respondents, both males and females in the city of Dehradun and near by areas, in state of Uttarakhand, India. The objective was to study the respondent’s level of environmental awareness, to measure their level of environmental attitudes and to observe the impact of environmental awareness on environmental attitudes and its dimensions. Also a comparison was made between the environmental awareness and environmental attitudes on two groups’ males and females.  The total sample was equally divided into two groups’ males and females. Stratified random sampling was used and all the subjects were matched on gender, socio-economic status and age group. Environmental Awareness Test (EAWT) by Dr. K. Yeshodhara was used to assess the environmental awareness of the subjects. Taj Environmental Attitude Scale (TEAS) by Dr. HaseenTaj was used to measure the environmental attitudes of the respondents.

 Mean, S.D. and ANOVAs’ were used to infer findings and prove the proposed hypothesis. The findings revealed a significant difference in environmental attitudes of the respondents of the three levels of environmental awareness (high, medium and low) and also a significant difference in environmental attitudes of the two groups’ males and females taken in study