Evaluating high school students' perspectives on climate change based on their field preferences

With the increasing impact of climate change being felt more each day, significant warnings in international climate reports, and growing concerns about the future, there has been a rise in scientific studies aimed at determining climate change awareness, particularly among the younger population. This study aims to evaluate high school students' perspectives on the concept of climate change across various dimensions, including sources of information, knowledge level, perception, anxiety, and behavioral intentions, based on their field preferences in science and mathematics, social sciences, mathematics and social sciences, and special skills. In the study, the high schools where the survey would be conducted were selected using a purposive sampling method based on their different curricula, which include fine arts, sports, foreign languages, social sciences, and science and mathematics. A full-area sampling was conducted by administering the survey to the participating students. The survey was conducted face-to-face with 1,905 high school students across eight high schools in Trabzon Province, covering all grade levels. The survey forms were designed using a 5-point Likert scale, and the reliability and validity of the questions were determined using Cronbach's alpha test. Descriptive statistics, variance analysis, and Duncan's test were used in the data evaluation. The study identified differences in the participating high school students' perspectives on the concept of climate change based on their field preferences, particularly in terms of knowledge level, perception, anxiety, mitigation actions, behavioral intentions, and sources of information. It was found that perspectives on climate change were moderate among the students in special skills and social sciences, whereas they were higher among the students in science and mathematics, and mathematics and social sciences. The study also provided several recommendations, based on the assumption that young people with higher levels of knowledge and perception may develop positive behaviors towards adapting to, and mitigating, the effects of climate change.