Reducing marine debris pollution by changing household behavior through children education

Last registered on June 03, 2020

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Reducing marine debris pollution by changing household behavior through children education

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0004650

Initial registration date

August 30, 2019

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

September 03, 2019, 1:56 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

June 03, 2020, 2:52 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Chile

Region

Biobío Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Mónica Marcela Jaime Torres

Affiliation

University of Concepcion

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Gracia Lanza

PI Affiliation

Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE)

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Fredrik Carlsson

PI Affiliation

University of Gothenburg

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Francisco Alpizar

PI Affiliation

Wageningen University and Research

Contact Investigator

PI Name

César Salazar

PI Affiliation

University of Bio-Bío

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2019-06-17

End date

2019-12-13

Keywords

Education, Environment & Energy, Other

Additional Keywords

environmental education, plastic debris, inter-generational learning, randomized control trial, spillovers

JEL code(s)

I21, Q53, D10, C93

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This paper aims at evaluating the direct and indirect effects of an educational program on students and parents knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding consumption and disposal of plastics. The program takes the form of an environmental education module with value-laded content, targeting 15 matched pairs of primary schools, as part of their subjects. The intervention is an adaptation of the content and curricula embedded in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA) marine debris program. The contents are reinforced with messages, activities and homework appealing to personal norms, being the latter designed to invoke parents attention indirectly. The program is implemented in partnership with the Biobío regional office of the Ministry of the Environment of the Government of Chile (MMA), targeting schools participating in the sustainable school program, which is led by this institution. To account for the behavior of children and parents at home before and after the intervention, the experimental design also consists of the implementation of ex-ante and ex-post surveys. This allows us to control for observable characteristics at the individual level, to understand households’ dynamics in relation with consumption and disposal of plastic, and to investigate to which extent households’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding marine plastic pollution problem, and other environmental problems and environmentally friendly practices are affected in response to the program. We expect that a program of this sort may have a largest impact on behavior, compared with the provision of environmental education alone.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Jaime Torres , Mónica Marcela et al. 2020. "Reducing marine debris pollution by changing household behavior through children education." AEA RCT Registry. June 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4650-2.4

Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We design and implement a randomized field experiment targeting a sample of 15 matched pairs of schools participating in the sustainable school program, led by the Ministry of Environment of the Government of Chile (MMA). The experiment involves the provision of an environmental education program with value-laden content. We target students attending all fourth grades in the treated schools. Because the program aims at assessing both a direct and a spillover effect, environmental education is coupled with activities that involve the parents.

Intervention Start Date

2019-06-17

Intervention End Date

2019-12-13

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Based on the KAP module, we have three main outcome of interest: knowledge, attitudes and practices. Knowledge about plastic pollution problem is measured as the percentage of correct answers from a list of 11 questions. Attitudes regarding plastic pollution problem and disposal of plastic are proxied by an index comprising 6 questions. Finally, practices include a series of actions carried out by individuals, covering different levels along the plastic impact pathway (i.e., consumption and disposal of plastic), as suggested by Alpizar et al (2019). The outcomes of interest in terms of consumption are: (i) An index of plastic composition of children’s school lunch box, and (ii) an index of intensity of plastic use in the household on a daily base. Similarly, in terms of disposal we define the following outcomes: (i) waste separation, and (ii) an index of frequency of plastic waste separation and disposal.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

An intervention of this sort could lead to either weak or strong effects. A weak effect can be understood as a change in the individual’s knowledge/attitudes that may not necessarily translate into changes in behavior. In contrast, a strong effect will necessarily imply a change in behavior, which operates through actions and practices.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

To account for the behavior of children and parents at home before and after the intervention, the experimental design also consists of the implementation of ex-ante and ex-post surveys, in combination with the environmental education program.This allows us to control for observable characteristics at the individual level, to understand households’ dynamics in relation with consumption and disposal of plastic, and to investigate to which extent households’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding marine plastic pollution problem and other environmental problems and environmentally friendly practices are affected in response to the program. Because we focus on direct and spillover effects of the program, these surveys are administered to both children and parents.

Experimental Design Details

To account for the behavior of children and parents at home before and after the intervention, the experimental design also consists of the implementation of ex-ante and ex-post surveys, in combination with the environmental education program. This allows us to control for observable characteristics at the individual level, to understand households’ dynamics in relation with consumption and disposal of plastic, and to investigate to which extent households’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding marine plastic pollution problem and other environmental problems and environmentally friendly practices are affected in response to the program. Because we focus on direct and spillover effects of the program, these surveys are administered to both children and parents.

Randomization Method

In the Chilean setting there is an extensive heterogeneity among schools, and these characteristics may affect the actual knowledge, attitudes and actions towards the use of plastics and the subsequent contribution to marine plastic pollution. We take these characteristics into account as part of the experimental design by generating a matched sample of schools based on the following observables: (i) coastal versus non-coastal towns, (ii) low- versus high-income schools, (iii) public versus private schools, and (iv) low- and high-level of environmental commitment of schools, based on their performance in the sustainable school program. This scheme allows us to generate a subset of schools that are comparable in the baseline. From our population of 105 schools, we randomly select 15 matched pairs of schools, being 15 schools assigned to the treatment group and 15 schools assigned to the control group, respectively

Randomization Unit

Schools

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

30 schools (i.e.,15 schools were assigned to treatment group, and 15 schools were assigned to control group).

Sample size: planned number of observations

Although the treatment is assigned at the school level, our unit of analysis the individual (i.e., pupils and parents/guardians). Based on official records, there are, on average, 2 courses per grade, and 25 students -on average- per class, so we expect to have a sample size of about 1320 pupils and 1320 parents/guardians,

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

15 schools control, and 15 schools treatment, respectively.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Because previous measures of knowledge and attitudes regarding plastic pollution problem are unknown, we focus on actions and practices. We use information from the Chilean National Survey of the Environment carried out in 2018. This survey only contains partial information of plastic disposal practices, however. These figures indicate that, in the Biobio region, 43.9% of individuals separate plastic recipients for recycling, with a standard deviation of 49.66%. Assuming a statistical power of 80% and without repetition, the minimum detectable effect for our total sample of 1,320 students is 7%.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB