Demographic Predictors of Environmental Concern: It Does Make a Difference How it's Measured

Examined the reasons for the inconsistent relationships reported in previous research between measures of environmental concern and standard demographic predictors. This study calls attention to the specific trade-offs and implicit comparisons that are associated with the different ways environmental issues are framed in questionnaire items (trade-offs between environmental protection and economic growth or the size of government, assessments of pollution at local and statewide levels, participation in pro-environmental behaviors, global threats and humanity-nature relationships). We combined the data from 4 biennial Texas-wide surveys and regressed 8 demographic variables on each of 21 repeated measures of environmental attitudes. The demographic variables used were age, education, gender, ethnicity, household income, size of town, political ideology, and religiosity. Reliable relationships across the different ways of measuring environmental concern were found for education and age. This was much less true for gender, religiosity, and ethnicity. Income, size of town, and self-identified political ideology had quite specific and delimited effects. The determinants of environmental concern vary in predictable ways, depending on the trade-offs reflected in the questionnaire items.