Abstract
Communicating climate risks to vulnerable groups motivating them to take adaptive actions remains a significant challenge in many populations, especially to children. The theory of reasoned action (TRA) suggests that attitude and subjective norms are important for persuasive communication. This study assesses how to apply TRA, its constructs and other relevant factors to predict behavior intention and beliefs and to change behavior tendency. The randomized field experiment method was applied to explore the differences between pre- and post-communication treatments (2 × 2 design). Can Tho city, located in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, was selected as the research context because of its vulnerability to climate change. The results show that, first, TRA was found to be a significant predictor model of children’s climate change behavior intentions. Second, attitude has a significant effect on the children’s intention to act while videos with subjective norm treatment had not. The treatment interaction of both constructs also had a significant effect. Third, TRA theory-based treatments are positively associated with changes in children’ salient beliefs on attitude and normative belief on social norm toward climate change. In addition, past practices, knowledge and gender are further factors that influence children’s behavior intentions. A theory-inspired design of communication strategy allows the prediction and influencing of intentions. This finding has strong implications for both research and development in Vietnam.
Highlights
Vietnam is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to the expected impacts of climate change [1]
The results relating to H1 on theory of reasoned action (TRA)-based treatments having significant effects on the climate change adaptation behavior intention are shown
The Vietnamese government is determined to increase the resilience of vulnerable groups to climate change through capacity building
Summary
Vietnam is among the most vulnerable countries in the world to the expected impacts of climate change [1]. The Vietnamese government expressed a strong commitment to assist and empower vulnerable communities to adapt. Part of these efforts is communication to increase awareness of climate-related risks and to promote adaptation actions that enhance the resilience and the adaption capacity of vulnerable groups [1]. For most of the Vietnamese people, climate change is understood as global warming and glacier melting [2]. This illustrates some ignorance about climate change. Two barriers are important in this aspect: the invisibility of the causes and the remote perception of the effects [3]
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