Mashhad 5 and 6 Year-Old Pre-school Student's Environmental Attitudes

Individuals develop their basic attitudes, values and skills in early years of life. The purpose of this study is to explore reasons of preschool children’s attitudes towards environmental issues in terms of consumption patterns, environmental protection, recycling-reusing, and living habits. The statistical population contains preschool age children living in Mashhad, Iran. Due to some problems (child care staff and parent's non-cooperation), available sampling method was chosen. The sample of the study was comprised of 40 preschool age children from 3 kindergartens and the data were collected through interviews. The interview questionnaire was adapted from Murak standard questionnaire and be supported by the pictures which were illustrated by the researcher. The analysis effort method was content analysis of interview transcripts and autobiography. The results show that in most cases, eco-centric attitudes is stronger than anthropocentric attitudes and children had no idea about some concepts such as the concept of recycling. Kindergarten as a place where children spend most of their childhood years, when they are strongly able to learn and imitate, can be considered as one of the most important circumstances which is able to change children's environmental attitudes.