Study of Environmental Knowledge and Behaviors of Rural Women in Kermanshah Province

This survey research was conducted to study of environmental knowledge and behavior of rural women in Kermanshah Province. The population of the study consisted of 203,504 of rural women (15-64 years) in Kermanshah Province which 384 women were selected as sample using sample size determination table of Bartlett et al and multistage stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire was developed for gathering information. Validity of the questionnaire confirmed by panel of  experts in agricultural development and extension, environment and natural resource, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficients (knowledge=0.86, behavior = 0.93). Results showed the level of environmental knowledge of rural women was moderate (M=10.29 and S.D=3.29) and their environmental behavior is fairly good (M=12.19 and S.D=1.64). Findings showed that there was positive correlation between environmental knowledge and environmental behaviors. Also, there were positive correlations between environmental knowledge and education, and between environmental behavior and age. Kruskal wallis test indicated that there were significant differences between environmental knowledge of rural woman with different source of information and environmental behavior of rural woman with different work activities. Rural women with the source of information through publications and magazines have a higher level of environmental knowledge and gardeners also had a better environmental behavior. Results of this study can be used by planners to development of environmental program in order to increasing knowledge and promoting environmental behavior of rural women.