Gender and economic orientation as correlates of attitudes towards environmental abuse: A study of a group of Nigerian undergraduates

Equity is central to concerns over environmental sustainability. Gender and economic power constitute prime bases of inequalities in human society. Moreover, university education has the potential to produce ideal individuals equipped to advance noble causes including environmental sanity. Hence, this study was designed to examine how economic and gender orientation affects attitude towards environmental abuse among a group of Nigerian undergraduates. Structured questionnaire were self-administered to 1120 randomly selected respondents and 1098 were analyzed. Multi-item measures were used to assess variables. One way ANOVA, Brown-Forsythe's test and Spearman's correlation r were used to analyze data. Results show that the mean score for attitudes towards environmental abuse was high (5.38±0.87, min. = 1.0, max. = 7.0) but, the generic pattern for attitude was fairly environmentally friendly because only 56.7% of respondents scored the mean or above. Age, sex and marital status had no effect on their attitude (p > 0.05) but religion and field of study did (p < 0.05). Economic and gender orientations were significantly and positively related to attitude towards environmental abuse (p < 0.05). Being Muslim and Christian as opposed to being a practitioner of a traditional religion; and undertaking studies within the field of biology and life sciences as well as science and technology, as opposed to social sciences, humanities and arts, predisposes students to healthier attitudes towards environmental abuse. Collectivist economic orientation and egalitarian gender orientation predisposes students to a healthier attitude towards environmental abuse.