The relationship between the family socio-demographic characteristics and the environmental ethics of the high school students in Abhar

In this study, the effects of socio-demographic characteristics of the family on the students’ environmental ethics (children of the families) were assessed. The aim of the study was to gather and publish useful information about environmental factors especially education and culture as one of the most important issues of the population and country developments. In this descriptive study, all the high school students 1391-92 of Abhar, Zanjan were recruited. The population included 4467 persons, and based on the Morgan’s table, 360 persons were randomly selected using two-step cluster method. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire consisting two parts "socio-demographic characteristics of the family" and "environmental ethics of the students." Validity of the questionnaire was assessed by a group of consulting professors and specialists of environmental education, and the reliability was pretested among 30 students, and was finally approved with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.771. Analyzing the results of the questionnaires, none of the variables including: number of children, parental educations, parental occupations, real estate or rental houses, and being emigrants or citizens had a significant relationship with the level of environmental ethics of the students. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to the environmental educations in new plans for the population organizing of the country, particularly concerning the importance of environmental ethics in providing a better future, in addition to the effort of improving the socio-demographic characteristics of the society.