Context-appropriate environmental attitude measurement in Africa using the Campbell paradigm
Date
25/10/2018Keywords
Metadata
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Abstract
The need to tailor environmental policies in Africa with an understanding of public attitudes is commonly acknowledged, but efforts to generate such understanding are generally constrained by a lack of reliable context-appropriate measures. Attempts to ‘borrow’ Western measures in African research are typically undermined by the cross-cultural inequivalence of constructs and theoretical models. Consequently, we tested the potential of the Campbell paradigm – an approach that enables context-specific adaptation of attitude measurement, among a Nigerian sample (N = 543). Data were gathered with a questionnaire survey. Our findings show that a context-appropriate environmental attitude measure can be obtained by assessing the behaviours and intention statements Nigerians execute in response to environmental issues. On average, pro-environmental attitude levels among our sample was characterised by professed intentions to perform the most difficult behaviours and actual engagement in the least difficult behaviours. The environmental attitude measure derived using the Campbell paradigm is positively related to other conventional attitude indicators including the perceived threat of climate change, concern, efficacy beliefs and acceptance of responsibility for mitigation. We conclude that the Campbell paradigm offers a viable avenue to proceed beyond simple assessments of professed environmental attitudes to more accurate evaluations of Africans’ disposition to strive for the achievement of ecological goals in difficult circumstances.
Citation
Ogunbode , C A , Henn , L & Tausch , N 2018 , ' Context-appropriate environmental attitude measurement in Africa using the Campbell paradigm ' , Environment, Development and Sustainability , vol. In press . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-018-0281-1
Publication
Environment, Development and Sustainability
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1573-2975Type
Journal article
Rights
© Springer Nature B.V. 2018. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-018-0281-1
Description
The preparation of this article was supported by a Santander Research Mobility Grant awarded to the first author.Collections
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