Big Five Personality Traits influencing Secondary Students' Environmental Literacy in Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract:The human population growth and technological advancement have spurred radical changes in the global environments that are harmful. Unfortunately, scholars have continued to tackle these environmental problems without paying attention to the personality factors responsible for such phenomena. It is consequent on these that this study investigated the combined and independent effects of big five personality factors namely openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism on secondary school students' environmental literacy. A field-based approach was adopted to collect quantitative data through the use of a questionnaire from 462 secondary school students that were randomly selected in thirteen secondary schools in Ondo State, Nigeria. Multiple regression statistical analysis utilized showed that the independent variables were effective predictors of secondary school students' environmental literacy. These findings were limited to subjects in thirteen secondary schools in Ondo State, Nigeria, as well as the personality factors investigated. These findings provided evidence on the need for secondary school teachers, counselling and educational psychologists in Nigeria to utilize environmental education and appropriate guidance approaches to mitigate the personality factors responsible for environmental problems.

Understanding the Antecedents and Consequences of Green Human Capital

“…Although previous studies examined the relations between Big Five personality traits and components of GHC, such as environmental knowledge (Akomolafe, 2017), environmental concern (Hirsh, 2010), environmental engagement (Milfont & Sibley, 2012), and environmental attitude (Verma et al, 2017), our study is the first empirical work to explicitly explore the relations between Big Five personality traits and GHC. Regarding hypothesized paths that were supported in the Big Five personality domains, agreeableness and openness have positively significant impacts on GHC.…”

“…For example, research that randomly selected 462 secondary school students in Nigeria found that conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness had a significant influence on environmental knowledge, whereas neuroticism and openness had no significant impact (Akomolafe, 2017). Another study conducted among German adults found that, among these five factors, agreeableness and openness are highly associated with environmental concern followed by neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion (Hirsh, 2010).…”

“…According to ability-motivation-opportunity theory (Appelbaum et al, 2000), human resource management practices could enhance employees' abilities, motivations, and opportunities, which could further promote organizational success (Appelbaum et al, 2000). Although preview work examined the relations between green training and components of GHC, such as knowledge (Akomolafe, 2017), concern (Hirsh, 2010), engagement (Milfont & Sibley, 2012), and attitude (Verma et al, 2017), this study proposed the initial viewpoints to investigate the relations between green training and GHC. Based on this, we proposed the sixth hypothesis:…”

“…Currently, an increasing number of companies are encouraging their employees to protect the environment, enrich environmental knowledge, and enhance environmental awareness, and therefore research on whether green human capital (GHC) is related to job satisfaction is worth exploring. In addition, although studies have examined the relations between personality factors, such as the Big Five personality model, and the components of GHC, such as green knowledge (Akomolafe, 2017), environmental concern (Hirsh, 2010), and attitudes toward the environment (Verma et al, 2017), few studies have explicitly examined the relations between personality and GHC. Moreover, studies show that training in general can contribute to human capital enhancement (Bontis et al, 2009;Riley et al, 2017), so we examine whether training in environment-related issues can enhance employees' GHC.…”

“…Although previous studies examined some issues, such as human capital and job satisfaction (Danchev & Sevinc, 2012), and training and human capital (Riley et al, 2017), few focused on the environment-related human capital, namely, GHC. In addition, although personality and environmental related knowledge (Akomolafe, 2017) and attitudes (Verma et al, 2017) have been explored before, few treated environmental knowledge, skills, experience, and attitudes as a whole, and investigated the relations between personality and GHC. Our study is the first empirical work to fill these gaps.…”