The Effect of Healthy Environment Education on Primary School Students' Attitudes Towards Environment

The Effect of Healthy Environment Education on Primary School Students' Attitudes Towards Environment: A Randomized Controlled Experimental Study

It is important to explain environmental literacy to every age group and segment of society and to raise awareness. Environmental education provided to younger age groups in particular teaches children to live in harmony with nature and not to become disconnected from it. Educational interventions in younger age groups can lead to them growing up with an awareness that, when they reach adulthood, enables them to behave consciously towards both their own lives and their environment. This is, in a sense, an important investment in the future. For this reason, the aim is to investigate the effect of Environmental Education on the Environmental Attitudes of Primary School Students and to examine the impact of the environmental education program titled "I Love and Protect My Environment" on the environmental attitudes and awareness levels of third-grade primary school students. The study predicts that the experimental group students will achieve a significant increase in their environmental attitudes and awareness scores compared to the control group. Furthermore, this effect is expected to be sustainable in follow-up measurements. The research results are expected to emphasize the importance of environmental education at the elementary school level and contribute to its integration into educational curricula.The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of Healthy Environment Education on the environmental attitudes of elementary school students. This study was designed as a three-month follow-up randomized controlled experimental design with pre-test and post-test. The population of the study consists of third-grade students attending Atatürk Elementary School in the central district of Kütahya province. The sample size was calculated using the G*Power 3.1 program based on a 95% confidence level (α = .05), 80% test power (1-β = .80), and a medium effect size (Cohen's d = 0.5). According to these parameters, at least 57 participants are required for each group. In this regard, taking into account participant loss, 5% of participants will be added to each group, and 60 participants will be included in each group to increase the reliability of the analyses. The Introductory Information Form, Primary School Environmental Attitude Scale, and Primary School Environmental Awareness Scale developed by the researchers will be used as data collection tools. Data will be collected in the form of pre-tests, post-tests, and one- and three-month follow-up measurements. Descriptive statistical methods such as percentage, mean, mode, median, etc. will be used in statistical analyses. Depending on whether the study data are normally distributed, the Shapiro-Wilk or Kolmogorov-Smirnov test will be used to examine the sample size. If the study data show a normal distribution, t-tests (between two groups) or one-way ANOVA (for more than one group) will be used for group comparisons. If the data do not show a normal distribution, the Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis test will be used. Pearson or Spearman correlation analysis will be performed to determine the relationship between demographic factors and environmental attitudes. When it is necessary to examine the relationships between environmental attitudes and demographic and other independent variables, analyses will be performed using multiple regression analysis. Within the scope of the research, a 6-week "I Protect My Environment" education program will be implemented for the experimental group, while no intervention will be made for the control group throughout the study. It is planned to implement the education program for the students in the control group after the completion of the study.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Environmental Awareness and Sensitivity; Climate Change Awareness; Environmental Health Education
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: "I Love and Protect My Environment" Education Program; Behavioral: Control Group

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 113
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey (Türkiye)
  • Merkez
    • Kütahya, Merkez, Turkey (Türkiye)
      • Aydın Adnan Menderes University, Faculy of Nursing, Division Public Health Nursing

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• Agreement by both the child and their family to participate in the study
• Enrollment in the third grade at Atatürk Elementary School during the 2025-2026 academic year
• Possession of the mental capacity to complete scales and forms and to participate in educational activities and events
• Possession of sufficient language proficiency to understand and express themselves in Turkish

EXCLUSION CRITERIA

• Preschool, 1st, 2nd, and 4th-grade students enrolled at Atatürk Elementary School during the 2025-2026 academic year
• Student absences due to health or other reasons

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: experimental group; The "I Love and Protect My Environment" educational program, developed by researchers based on a literature review and expert opinions, was conducted for third-grade elementary school students over a six-week period, on the same day and during the same class period each week.	Behavioral: "I Love and Protect My Environment" Education Program; The "I Love and Protect My Environment" educational program, developed by researchers through a literature review and expert consultations, was implemented over a period of six weeks.
Experimental: control group; No intervention was performed on the control group.	Behavioral: Control Group; No intervention was performed on the control group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Environmental Attitude Scale for Elementary School Students	To measure elementary school students' attitudes toward the environment, we plan to use the "Environmental Attitude Scale for Elementary School Students," developed by Artvinli and Demir in 2018. The scale consists of three subscales-Positive Environmental Behaviors (27 items), Environmental Knowledge and Awareness (10 items), and Negative Environmental Behaviors (6 items)-for a total of 43 questions. The scale is a 3-point Likert-type scale rated as "1: Agree," "2: Somewhat Agree," and "3: Disagree." The Cronbach's Alpha coefficients for the scale's sub-dimensions and the scale as a whole are as follows: Positive Environmental Behavior: 0.94, Environmental Knowledge and Awareness: 0.75, Negative Environmental Behaviors: 0.71, and the overall Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for the scale is 0.93.	Baseline, immediately after intervention, 1 month after intervention, and 3 months after intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Elementary School Environmental Awareness Scale	To measure elementary school students' environmental awareness during the intervention phase, we plan to use the "Elementary School Environmental Awareness Scale," developed by Yıldız-Yılmaz and Mentiş-Taş in 2017. The scale is a 5-point Likert-type scale and is rated as follows: "1: Strongly Disagree, 2: Somewhat Disagree, 3: Undecided, 4: Agree, 5: Strongly Agree." The scale consists of 4 subscales. The subscales are: Living in Nature (15 items), Renewable Energy Sources and Their Uses (12 items), Environmental Responsibility (5 items), and Sustainability of Living Organisms (3 items), making a total of 35 items. The Cronbach's Alpha value for the scale was calculated as 0.84. This score indicates that the scale is reliable.	Baseline, immediately after intervention, 1 month after intervention, and 3 months after intervention.

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Information Form	The Demographic Information Form was developed by researchers through a literature review. The form consists of a total of 15 questions. The purpose of the form is to identify sociodemographic characteristics. The questions include the student's age, gender, mother's educational status, mother's occupation, father's educational status, father's occupation, family's economic status, the home's heating source, whether there are pets in the home, whether the child attends daycare, whether the child spends time on the street during free time, family type, heating source, and whether the child participates in waste sorting at school. The questions are in multiple-choice format.	Baseline, immediately after intervention, 1 month after intervention, and 3 months after intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Aydin Adnan Menderes University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 23, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 28, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): February 17, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 11, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 17, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): June 22, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 22, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 17, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: health education; environmental health; public health nursing; environment and public health; Primary school students School-Based Intervention
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Immune System Diseases; Treatment Adherence and Compliance; Health Behavior; Patient Compliance; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Adherence Interventions; Medication Adherence; Hypersensitivity; Behavior; Health Education; Investigative Techniques; Epidemiologic Research Design; Epidemiologic Methods; Research Design; Methods; Control Groups
• Other Study ID Numbers: Healthy Environment Education

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The data sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: 6 months after publication
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Relevance to the topic of the study and approval of all co-authors within 1 month of receiving the request.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No