Analysis of secondary school students attitudes to the environment using 2-MEV attitude scale

In this research, it is aimed to determine the environmental attitude levels of secondary school students using the Two-Factor Environmental Values Model (2-MEV) Attitude Scale. In addition, students' attitudes towards the environment were examined according to their gender, grade level, parental education level, monthly income level per capita, membership in any environmental organization and participation in any environmental education project. 469 secondary school students, who are in secondary schools affiliated to the center in Mersin's Gülnar district and continue their education in the 2021-2022 academic year, selected by convenient (easily accessible) sampling method, participated in the research. The research was carried out with the quantitative research method and the survey model was used in the research. As a data collection tool in the research; The Personal Information Form prepared by the researchers and the Two-factor Environmental Values Model (2-MEV) Attitude Scale originally developed by Kibbe, Bogner and Kaiser (2014) and adapted to Turkish by Kılıç (2018) were used. Statistical analyzes of the data were made using the IBM SPSS Statistics 22 package program. The normality analyzes of the data were made according to the kurtosis and skewness values. Independent Samples T Test, One-Way Anova, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used in the analysis of the data depending on the results of the normality analysis. According to the results of the research, considering the total scores obtained from the scale, it was determined that the attitudes of the students towards the environment differed significantly according to the variables of gender, education level of parents and monthly income level per capita. As a result of the evaluation made in terms of the protection sub-dimension, it was determined that the attitudes of the students towards the environment differ in terms of gender and educational status of the parents. As a result of the evaluation made according to the sub-dimension of use, it was observed that there was a significant difference between the attitudes of the students towards the environment according to the variables of gender, parental education level and monthly income per capita. It was determined that the students' attitude scores towards the environment did not differ according to other variables. Keywords: Environment, Secondary school students, Environmental attitude, Two-factors model of environmental values (2-MEV).