Work

Neighborhood characteristics on environmental literacy in urban youth: a case from Detroit Metropolitan Area, USA

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Urban youth are exposed to a myriad of conditions that may influence environmental literacy in their informal learning settings. In partnership with the Detroit Zoological Society's Education program, we implemented an environmental literacy questionnaire to 43 participants from ages 9–13. We investigated how place dependency, place identity, research competencies, empathy for wildlife, ecological knowledge – all components of environmental literacy using stepwise regression were influenced by social and environmental neighborhood characteristics in youth residing in the Detroit metropolitan area. While distance to park, road density, and impervious surface affected environmental literacy, social variables such as education attainment and housing burden were most important. Because environmental literacy is crucial to growing advocacy and promoting pro-environmental behavior understanding drivers that influence attitudes towards nature has ramifications for securing both an inclusive STEM workforce and sustainable future.

Source: Cities

DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2025.106042

Authors: Nyeema C. Harris, Germar González, Stephen Vrla

Institution: Yale University

Language: English

Topic: Environmental Education and Sustainability

Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Quality education

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,000