Interpersonal Climate Change Communication in Florida Using Quantile Regression

Abstract

Climate change is described as a potentially catastrophic phenomenon with the capacity to disrupt agricultural production, economies, health systems, education, and infrastructure, among other systems. In Florida, climate change is a concern because of the state’s extensive coastline and its influence on the economy, as well as residents’ safety and well-being. As early as 2007, researchers forecasted that vulnerable wetlands, mangroves, fisheries, and coastal infrastructure in Florida may be significantly damaged or destroyed by 2060. Climate change communication (CCC) is described as a complex problem that requires several layers of attention, especially in achieving the desired outcome of behavior change. Previous research suggested that climate change communicators would be more effective if they understood their audiences and their communication capacities. The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of demographic factors on social communication for residents of Florida. A survey was used to collect the data through an address-based sampling (ABS) method, where a total of 318 usable responses were received from Florida residence 18 years or older. A latent construct for describing social communication (Social Communication Index [SCI]) was created as the dependent variable and was tested against eight variables using a quantile regression approach. Using quantiles in 0.1 intervals, the results showed that knowledge, age, income, newspaper use, urbanicity, and race affected the SCI in one or more quantiles. Social media, sex, and religiosity were insignificant throughout all quantiles. While most of the results align with previous research, there is the need for further probing into social communication on climate change to ensure that audience segments are provided with climate change information through the channels they primarily use.