About
PTDC/PSI-GER/1892/2021
“There’s no PLANet B!” – This is one of the most frequent slogans used in several protests to demand action on climate change (CC). The slogan reflects well the urgent need to keep our planet safe. To accomplish this, it is necessary to mitigate the triggers of CC, which are rooted in human activity, responsible for high emissions of greenhouse gas. This problem cannot be solved overnight and depends on individual and collective actions. More than changing random behaviors, there is a call to play an active agent role toward CC. This is related to the construct of agency proposed by Bandura, which refers to the human capability to intentionally influence one's functioning and the course of life through one's actions through self-regulatory processes. According to the model of triadic reciprocal causation, agency modes (i.e., individual, collective, and proxy) influence and are influenced by personal, behavioral, and environmental determinants. These agency modes are particularly relevant for CC, where solutions must be built at individual and collective levels.
Grounded on social cognitive theory, the current project aims to: i) understand adolescents’ modes and sources of agency to mitigate CC and ii) analyze personal and environmental predictors of adolescents’ agency towards CC problem. To accomplish these aims, students between 12 and 17 years old and other key informants (parents, science teachers, school principals, and Heads of the Mayor’s Offices of Education and Environment of the community) will be invited to participate. The project encompasses three phases: i) collecting qualitative data through interviews and focus groups with adolescents and with the mentioned informants; ii) developing and validating a scale to assess adolescents’ agency toward CC, and iii) collecting large-scale quantitative data to test a multilevel explanatory model of adolescents’ agency towards CC.
By deepening current knowledge of adolescents’ modes of agency and its multiple predictors, it is expected to help design effective educational practices, policies, and interventions aimed to mitigate CC, one of the biggest challenges of this century.
