Views of Central European high school students on environmental issues and policies
References
- Alfoldi Z., Alfoldi P. 2019. Environmental attitudes of Hungarian students and the prospects for environmental education. Ecocycles, 5: 19–25.
- Baldwin C., Pickering G., Dale G. 2023. Knowledge and self-efficacy of youth to take action on climate change. Environmental Education Research, 29: 1597–1616.
- Čábelková I., Smutka L., Strielkowski W. 2022. Public support for sustainable development and environmental policy: A case of the Czech Republic. Sustainable Development, 30: 110–126.
- Caro T., Rowe Z., Berger J., Wholey P., Dobson A. 2022. An inconvenient misconception: Climate change is not the principal driver of biodiversity loss. Conservation Letters, 15: e12868.
- Christov-Moore L., Simpson E.A., Coudé G., Grigaityte K., Iacoboni M., Ferrari P.F. 2014. Empathy: Gender effects in brain and behavior. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 46: 604–627.
- Cincera J., Kroufek R., Bogner F.X. 2022. The perceived effect of environmental and sustainability education on environmental literacy of Czech teenagers. Environmental Education Research, 29: 1276–1293.
- Cynk K. 2017a. The state of the environmental awareness of students from Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine – selected results. Civil and Environmental Engineering Reports, 24: 21–37.
- Cynk K. 2017b. Level of Environmental education in students from Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Rozpravy Społecyne/Social Dissertations, 11: 44–54.
- Damerell P., Howe C., Milner-Gulland E.J. 2013. Child-oriented environmental education influences adult knowledge and household behaviour. Environmental Research Letters, 8: 015016.
- Durdovic M., Kolářová M., Čermák D. 2025. Public resistance to climate policy amid energy crisis and populism: The case of the European Green Deal in the Czech Republic. Energy Research & Social Science, 123: 104033.
- EEA. 2019. The European environment – state and outlook 2020. Knowledge for transition and a sustainable Europe. Publications Office of the European Union. Luxembourg.
- Eilam E. 2022. Climate change education: the problem with walking away from disciplines. Studies in Science Education, 58: 231–264.
- European Commission. 2024. Attitudes of Europeans towards the environment.
- Hickman C., Marks E., Pihkala P., Clayton S., Lewandowski E., Mayall E.E., Wray B., Mellor C., Susteren L. 2021. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5: E863–E873.
- IPBES. 2019. Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. S. Díaz, J. Settele, E.S. Brondízio, H.T. Ngo, M. Guèze, J. Agard, A. Arneth, P. Balvanera, K.A. Brauman, S.H.M. Butchart, K.M.A. Chan, L.A. Garibaldi, K. Ichii, J. Liu, S.M. Subramanian, G.F. Midgley, P. Miloslavich, Z. Molnár, D. Obura, A. Pfaff, S. Polasky, A. Purvis, J. Razzaque, B. Reyers, R., Roy Chowdhury, Y.J. Shin, I.J. Visseren-Hamakers, K.J. Willis, C.N. Zayas (eds.). Bonn, Germany.
- Jankowski P, Świsłocki T. 2025. Do Generation Z students in Poland support sustainable urban forestry? Attitudes toward urban trees and willingness to donate. Sustainability, 17: 7251.
- Kemp L., Xu C., Depledge J., Ebi K.L., Gibbins G., Kohler T.A., Rockström J., Scheffer M., Schellnhuber H.J., Steffen W., Lenton T.M. 2022. Climate endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119: e2108146119.
- Lewis S.L., Maslin M.A. 2015. Defining the Anthropocene. Nature, 519: 171–180.
- Lipták B., Kouba A., Patoka J., Paunović M., Prokop P. 2024. Biological invasions and invasive species in freshwaters: perception of the general public. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 29: 48–63.
- Lorincová S., Osvaldová M. 2025. Pro-environmental behavior and attitudes towards recycling in Slovak Republic. Recycling, 10: 159.
- Marcineková L., Štérbová M., Výbošťok J., Hajdúchová I., Giertliová B., Šulek R., Sarvašová Z., Šálka J. 2024. Slovak Republic and its environmental transformation: measuring environmental attitudes using the new ecological paradigm. Frontiers in Psychology, 15: 1320451.
- Medvecky F., Leßmöllmann A. 2026. Commentary set: science communication in changing political winds. Journal of Science Communication, 25: C01.
- Neurohr A.-L., Pasch N., Bergmann-Gering A., Möller A. 2024. Linking students’ interest in nature to their self-reported pro-environmental behavior and nature activities – A cross-sectional study in grade 5 to 9. The Journal of Environmental Education, 55: 460–479.
- Novotný R., Huttmanová E., Valentiny T., Kalistová A. 2021. Evaluation of environmental awareness of university students: the case of the University of Presov, Slovakia. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 10: 59–72.
- Ojala M. 2012. Hope and climate change: the importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. Environmental Education Research, 18: 625–642.
- Ojala M. 2015. Climate change scepticism among adolescents. Journal of Youth Studies, 18: 1135–1153.
- Otto S., Pensini P. 2017. Nature-based environmental education of children: Environmental knowledge and connectedness to nature, together, are related to ecological behaviour. Global Environmental Change, 47: 88–94.
- Piscová V., Lehotayová J., Hreško J. 2023. Environmental education in the school system at elementary schools in Slovak Republic. European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 11: 650–671.
- Prokop P., Kubiatko M. 2014. Perceived vulnerability to disease predicts environmental attitudes. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 10, 1: 3–11.
- Richardson K., Steffen W., Lucht W., Bendsten J., Cornell S., Donges J.F., et al. 2023. Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries. Science Advances, 9: eadh2458.
- Ripple W.J., Wolf C., Gregg J.W., Rockström J., Newsome T.M. Law B.E., Marques L., Lenton T.M., Xu C., Huq S., Simons L., Kong S.D.A. 2023. The 2023 state of the climate report: Entering uncharted territory. BioScience, 73: 841–850.
- Rockström J., Steffen W., Noone K., Persson Å., Stuart Chapin III F., Lambin E.F., et al. 2009. A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461: 472–475.
- Rousell D., Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles A. 2019. A systematic review of climate change education: giving children and young people a ‘voice’ and a ‘hand’ in redressing climate change. Children’s Geographies, 18: 191–208.
- Soga M., Gaston K.J. 2016. Extinction of experience: the loss of human – nature interactions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 14: 94–101.
- Soga M., Gaston K.J., Yamaura Y., Kurisu K., Hanaki K. 2016. Both direct and vicarious experiences of nature affect children’s willingness to conserve biodiversity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 529: 1–12.
- Svobodová S. 2020. Environmental literacy of pupils and its investigation in the Czech Republic. Sociální pedagogika-Social Education, 8: 88–104.
- Svobodová S., Chvál M. 2024. Environmental literacy of lower secondary school pupils in the Czech Republic. Journal of Biological Research, 58: 383–405.
- Trott C.D. 2020. Children’s constructive climate change engagement: Empowering awareness, agency, and action. Environmental Education Research, 26: 532–554.
- Turvey S.T., Crees J.J. 2019. Extinction in the Anthropocene. Current Biology, 29: R982 – R986,
- Urban J., Kaiser F.G. 2022. Environmental attitudes in 28 European countries derived from a theoretically compiled opinions and self-reports of behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 13: 875419.
- van de Wetering J., Leijten P., Spitzer J., Thomaes S. 2022. Does environmental education benefit environmental outcomes in children and adolescents? A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81: 101782.
- Wasilewska O. 2023. Environmental attitudes and behaviours of youth in Poland and their determinants based on ICCS 2022 data. Edukacja, 4: 74–92.
- WWF. 2022. Living Planet Report 2022 – Building a nature positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli, D. & Petersen, T. (eds). Gland, Switzerland.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/environ-2026-0017 | Journal eISSN: 2354-0079
Language: English
Page range: 28 - 41
Submitted on: Mar 27, 2026
Accepted on: Aug 10, 2026
Published on: Sep 18, 2026
Published by: University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
Related subjects:
© 2026 Boris Lipták, Antonín Kouba, Jiří Patoka, Barbora Patoková, Pavol Prokop, published by University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Natural Sciences
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.