The Impact of Secondary School Students’ Hygiene Habits on Environmental Knowledge

Abstract

For sustainable development, hygiene should be specific to general, from personal hygiene to environmental cleaning, and environmental awareness of individuals should be made more permanent. It is estimated that individuals who know the importance of personal hygiene may be more sensitive to the ecological problems of their society. Individuals growing up sensitive to the environment can make the environment more livable. This study aimed to investigate the impact of variables such as gender, class level, residence, educational status of parents, type of residence of the family, hand-face washing, and frequency of bathing on the environmental knowledge of secondary school students. In the study, the survey method among descriptive research was used. The study was conducted with a total of 360 secondary school students studying in the village schools and central schools in Ağrı province in the 2018-2019 academic year. In the study, Environmental Knowledge Test (water-soil pollution) and Hygiene Information Form (face washing, bathing) were used as data collection tools, and their relationship with the variables included in the data collection tools was examined. Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis Tests were used to analyze the data. As a result of the statistical analysis, a significant relationship was found between environmental knowledge and gender, class level, parental education level, and residence; however, no significant relationship was found between environmental knowledge and the frequency of hand-face washing and bathing.