Leuphana Study: Social Background Also Shapes Environmental Awareness
2026-05-27 Lüneburg. Academic success depends largely on social background—this has long been known. A recent international study led by researchers at Leuphana University of Lüneburg now shows that young people’s attitudes toward environmental protection are also strongly influenced by their social background. As part of a comprehensive meta-analysis, the scientists evaluated data from nearly 700,000 students across 65 countries. The study has now been published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
The social divide in the ecological values of children and adolescents is particularly wide, especially in economically strong countries, despite extensive access to information. The researchers see a danger in this: when it comes to climate protection and sustainability discourses, it is primarily socially privileged young people who are heard and empowered to act, thereby shaping public discourse.
The study also shows that the social divide in environmental attitudes is already wide open in elementary school and does not close over time. This suggests that schools, in their current form and with standard pedagogical approaches, have only limited ability to influence the impact of family background on the development of environmental values in children and adolescents.
“Our findings show that economic development and good access to information alone will not lead to greater environmental justice,” explains Prof. Dr. Marcus Pietsch, who led the study. “We need targeted educational measures to ensure that environmental awareness does not become the exclusive privilege of those who are already socially advantaged,” the education researcher is convinced.
The publication can be found here;
doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.103085