Assessing Cognitive and Social Attitudes toward Environmental Conservation in Coral Reef Social-Ecological Systems

Kostas Alexandridis

doi:10.3390/socsci7070109

Abstract

This study addresses the latent construct of attitudes toward environmental conservation based on study participant’s responses. We measured and evaluated the latent scale based on an 18-item scale instrument, over four experimental strata (N = 945) in the US Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. We estimated the latent scale reliability and validity. We further fitted multiple alternative two-parameter logistic (2PL) and graded response models (GRM) from Item-Response Theory. We finally constructed and fitted equivalent structural and generalized structural equation models (SEM/GSEM) for the attitudinal latent scale. All scale measures (composite, alpha-based, IRT-based, and SEM-based) were consistently and reliably valid measures of the study participants’ latent attitudes toward conservation. We found statistically significant differences among participant’s attributes relating to socio-demographic, physical, and core environmental characteristics of participants. We assert that the nature of relationship between cognitive attitudes and individual as well as social behavior related to environmental conservation.

Highlights

The formation of attitudes traditionally represents a primarily cognitive process, that is, a process dependent on individual mental processes (Heit 2008)
The key research question addressed in this study is “Can we measure and evaluate the latent attitudes of participants and social groups toward environmental conservation?” To address this overarching question, we developed a latent scale instrument attempting to measure study participant’s attitudes toward environmental conservation in coral reef systems
Key reliability statistics on the composite scale measurements are shown in Table 2 below

Summary

Introduction

The formation of attitudes traditionally represents a primarily cognitive process, that is, a process dependent on individual mental processes (Heit 2008). The study of environmental attitudes has provided insight into cognitive processes and environmental behaviors of participants. Levine and Strube (2012) have shown gender and age-related differences in pro-environmental attitudes and their possible influence of environmental behavior among college student participants. Latent cognitive and social processes affect the presence, nature, characteristics, and structure of attitudinal formation. They affect jointly, and at the least non-monotonically, the level of association between attitudinal formations within individuals that share a social experience (Ajzen 2012)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion