Greek primary school students’ moral judgments and motives about sustainable food consumption

IF 3.7 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Vasiliki Maria Panatsa, Georgios Malandrakis
{"title":"Greek primary school students’ moral judgments and motives about sustainable food consumption","authors":"Vasiliki Maria Panatsa,&nbsp;Georgios Malandrakis","doi":"10.1016/j.clrc.2024.100173","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Modern dietary habits pose large threats to the global vision for a sustainable food system transition, intensifying discussions around the urgency for educational initiatives that can promote more sustainable food consumption practices. However, research has not sufficiently studied food consumers' moral background, despite its strong influence on food choices, while relevant research on school-aged consumers is even scarcer. This study focuses on two individual ethical decision-making processes regarding food sustainability: moral judgments and moral motives. Data was selected using non-probability, opportunity sampling from 587 students attending the last two grades of primary school in the Region of Western Macedonia, Greece. Participants completed a Likert-scale questionnaire, which adopted a holistic approach towards food sustainability, incorporating the following 12 variables associated with all three domains of sustainability (environmental, societal, economic): Biodiversity, Carbon footprint, Soil, water and air conservation, (Food) loss and waste, Water footprint, Nutrition and health, Animal welfare, Workers' rights and safety, Cultural traditions, Food supply, Tax revenues and Profits, Jobs/incomes. In the moral motives scale, additional variables associated with non-moral considerations were also assessed: Sensory Appeal, Mood, Promotion, Social influence, Convenience and Familiarity. For the moral judgments scale, findings revealed low to medium scores for all the domains and among the variables associated with a sustainable food system, the lowest mean scores being recorded in those linked to the social dimension of sustainability. Regarding food consumption motives, results indicate that non-moral considerations prevail remarkably over moral ones and are linked to all three domains of sustainability. Statistical testing identified grade level, gender, place of residence and participation in environmental, health or food education school programs as factors influencing certain aspects of students’ moral thinking at a statistically significant level. Insights gained from this study can contribute to educational and other agendas aiming to promote sustainable food consumption.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":34617,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner and Responsible Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666784324000068/pdfft?md5=f15ddfb8919eac49810891ab57514f06&pid=1-s2.0-S2666784324000068-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cleaner and Responsible Consumption","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666784324000068","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Modern dietary habits pose large threats to the global vision for a sustainable food system transition, intensifying discussions around the urgency for educational initiatives that can promote more sustainable food consumption practices. However, research has not sufficiently studied food consumers' moral background, despite its strong influence on food choices, while relevant research on school-aged consumers is even scarcer. This study focuses on two individual ethical decision-making processes regarding food sustainability: moral judgments and moral motives. Data was selected using non-probability, opportunity sampling from 587 students attending the last two grades of primary school in the Region of Western Macedonia, Greece. Participants completed a Likert-scale questionnaire, which adopted a holistic approach towards food sustainability, incorporating the following 12 variables associated with all three domains of sustainability (environmental, societal, economic): Biodiversity, Carbon footprint, Soil, water and air conservation, (Food) loss and waste, Water footprint, Nutrition and health, Animal welfare, Workers' rights and safety, Cultural traditions, Food supply, Tax revenues and Profits, Jobs/incomes. In the moral motives scale, additional variables associated with non-moral considerations were also assessed: Sensory Appeal, Mood, Promotion, Social influence, Convenience and Familiarity. For the moral judgments scale, findings revealed low to medium scores for all the domains and among the variables associated with a sustainable food system, the lowest mean scores being recorded in those linked to the social dimension of sustainability. Regarding food consumption motives, results indicate that non-moral considerations prevail remarkably over moral ones and are linked to all three domains of sustainability. Statistical testing identified grade level, gender, place of residence and participation in environmental, health or food education school programs as factors influencing certain aspects of students’ moral thinking at a statistically significant level. Insights gained from this study can contribute to educational and other agendas aiming to promote sustainable food consumption.

希腊小学生对可持续食品消费的道德判断和动机
现代饮食习惯对全球实现可持续粮食系统转型的愿景构成了巨大威胁,这也加剧了围绕教育活动的紧迫性的讨论,教育活动可以促进更可持续的粮食消费行为。然而,尽管食品消费者的道德背景对食品选择有很大影响,但相关研究对其研究还不够,而针对学龄消费者的相关研究更是少之又少。本研究侧重于有关食品可持续性的两个个人道德决策过程:道德判断和道德动机。数据采用非概率机会抽样法从希腊西马其顿地区小学最后两个年级的 587 名学生中选取。参与者填写了一份李克特量表问卷,该问卷采用了食品可持续性的整体方法,包含了与所有三个可持续性领域(环境、社会、经济)相关的以下 12 个变量:生物多样性、碳足迹、土壤、水和空气保护、(食物)损失和浪费、水足迹、营养和健康、动物福利、工人权利和安全、文化传统、食物供应、税收和利润、工作/收入。在道德动机量表中,还评估了与非道德因素相关的其他变量:感官吸引力、情绪、促销、社会影响、便利性和熟悉程度。道德判断量表的结果显示,在所有领域以及与可持续粮食系统相关的变量中,平均得分都处于中低水平,其中与可持续发展的社会维度相关的变量平均得分最低。关于食品消费动机,结果表明,非道德因素明显高于道德因素,并且与可持续发展的所有三个领域相关。统计测试表明,年级、性别、居住地以及是否参加过学校的环境、健康或食品教育计划,都是影响学生道德思维某些方面的因素,而且在统计学上具有显著意义。从这项研究中获得的启示有助于旨在促进可持续食品消费的教育和其他议程。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
Cleaner and Responsible Consumption
Cleaner and Responsible Consumption Social Sciences-Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
CiteScore
4.70
自引率
0.00%
发文量
40
审稿时长
99 days
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信