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We conducted a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research studies published between 1999 and 2010 that empirically evaluated the outcomes of environmental education (EE) programs for youth (ages 18 and younger) in an attempt to address the following objectives: (1) to seek reported empirical evidence for what works (or does not) in EE programming and (2) to uncover lessons regarding promising approaches for future EE initiatives and their evaluation. While the review generally supports consensus-based best practices, such as those published in the North American Association for Environmental Education's Guidelines for Excellence, we also identified additional themes that may drive positive outcomes, including the provision of holistic experiences and the characteristics and delivery styles of environmental educators. Overall, the evidence in support of these themes contained in the 66 articles reviewed is mostly circumstantial. Few studies attempted to empirically isolate the characteristics of programs responsible for measured outcomes. We discuss general trends in research design and the associated implications for future research and EE programming.

A growing body of empirical literature supports the validity of psychometric assessments of human life history strategies, but no comprehensive quantitative summaries have yet been published. We present a psychometric validation study of a 20-item Short-Form of the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB), the Mini-K, using meta-analytic procedures to survey a multiplicity of published and unpublished studies on English-speaking North American college student samples. Correlations between the Mini-K with other measures of related constructs describe the dimensions of the broader conceptual framework encompassed by human life history strategy and empirically establish a nomological network surrounding the Mini-K by quantitatively characterizing its system of relations to related and unrelated constructs. These constructs include the General Factor of Personality, Mutualistic and Antagonistic Social Strategies, Emotional Intelligence, Executive Functions, Covitality, and Evaluative Self-Assessment as well as other indicators of human life history strategy, including all those comprising the ALHB and many others not used in the ALHB, and indicators of one’s Romantic Partner’s life history strategy. Although a single measure cannot capture something as complex and multifaceted as life history strategy, both the Mini-K and the ALHB of which it is a part, perform as predicted by evolutionary psychological theory within this wider conceptual framework.

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