understanding teen attitudes towards energy consumption
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Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e44
Contents lists available
Journal of Environmental Psychology
journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ jep
Understanding teen attitudes towards energy consumption
Nicola Toth a, Linda Little a,*, Janet C. Read b, Daniel Fitton b, Matthew Horton b
aDepartment of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, Northumbria University, NB 155, Northumberland Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, United Kingdomb School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, United Kingdom
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:Available online 17 December 2012
Keywords:TeenagersEnergyQualitativeMultiple methods
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ44 (0)191 227 7250E-mail addresses: [email protected]
northumbria.ac.uk (L. Little), [email protected] (J.C.(D. Fitton), [email protected] (M. Horton).
0272-4944/$ e see front matter � 2012 Elsevier Ltd.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.12.001
a b s t r a c t
Previous research has tended to focus on adults or households as a whole when investigating attitudesand behaviours towards energy use. This study focussed on teenagers, ‘the adults of tomorrow’, and theirattitudes towards energy consumption. 114 Teenagers aged 10e19 years took part and multiple datacollection methods were used to investigate this topic including: diaries, stories and focus groups. Datawas analysed using thematic analysis. Themes that emerged from the data were: energy use, impact ofenergy use, sources of information, location, barriers to saving energy and green teens. This paperdiscusses the findings in relation to future research and reflects on the methods used.
� 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The reduction of CO2 emissions is a global issue. According to theInternational Energy Agency (BBC News, 2011) global CO2 emissionsin 2010 were at their highest level. Within the UK, the ClimateChange Act 2008 has set a requirement to reduce greenhouse gasesby a minimum of 80%, in comparison with emissions in 1990, by2050 (HM Government, 2010). The European Environment Agency(2008, p. 9) noted residential energy consumption ‘is one of thesectors with the highest potential for energy efficiency’. Statistics revealresidential energy use for the UK was 32% in 2010 (Department ofEnergy and Climate Change, 2011), Europe 26.6% in 2005(European Environment Agency, 2008) and the US 23% in 2010 (U.S.Energy Information Administration, 2010). In 2009e2010 theUKalsowitnessed a 13% increase in domestic energy use due to: coldweather, an increase in theUKpopulation and a rise in the number ofindividual households (Department of Energy and Climate Change,2011). Households have also increased their electricity consump-tion by 74% through the use of consumer electronics from 1990 to2010 (Department of Energy and Climate Change, 2011). Thesestatistics highlight the problemof increasing energy use in the home.
1.1. Reducing energy use
People save energy due to a mix of both economical costs andenvironmental concern, although there is evidence that much
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energy consumption takes place without any conscious consider-ation on the part of consumers of either (i) the amount of energythey actually use (Thøgersen & Grønhøj, 2010) or (ii) the resultingimpact on the environment (Pierce, Schiano, & Paulos, 2010). Anumber of factors would underpin a longer-term change in bothattitude and behaviour. Gustafsson and Bång (2008) suggest havinga positive attitude towards sustainability is necessary, but notsufficient to drive behaviour change, while Petkov, Kobler, Foth, andKrcmar (2011) have argued that a combination of knowledge,comparison, motivation and feedback is associated with longer-term attitude and behaviour change. Knowledge coupled witha positive attitude towards sustainability can leverage behaviourchange, particularly when consumers engage in a comparisonprocess inwhich they see how their efforts relate to their peers, butvery few approaches have fully taken individual consumers moti-vations and expectations into account (Petkov, Felix, et al., 2011;Petkov, Kobler, et al., 2011).
The invisible nature of energy consumption can hinder savingenergy. Fischer (2008, p. 80) describes electricity as ‘abstract, invisibleand untouchable’ which therefore makes it unnoticed by the user(Darby, 2006). This was highlighted further with research thatexplored the understanding of electricity through drawings (Chisik,2011). Participants’ drawings indicated relatively little awareness ofhow much electricity different appliances used within the home(Chisik, 2011). With this in mind, a number of studies have helpedconsumers understand their energy consumption by providingbetter and more visible feedback. A number of systems now offerinstant feedback to the consumer in the form of some kind of vis-ualisation about their energy consumption e and these have proveduseful in reducing energy consumption. For example, one keymotivating factor for households to reduce energy consumption is
N. Toth et al. / Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e44 37
cost (Petkov, Kobler, et al., 2011) and so some means of visualisingthe link between cost and consumption can be used to changebehaviour. Social comparison can also leverage behaviour change.Moere et al. (2011) developed a comparative feedback system basedon showing individual household energy consumption on a façadeoutside of people’s homes. They found the competitive nature of thepublic display led to a sustainable behaviour change. However, suchsocial comparison processes carry risks e if a household is the leastenergy efficient in the neighbourhood, it might induce disengage-ment and a lowered desire to save energy further (Thøgersen &Grønhøj, 2010).
Several campaigns now exist that target and focus on helpingdifferent user groups save and reduce their energy consumption e.g.Student Switch Off, UK; Super Cool Biz, Japan and Greenpeace,Worldwide. Also, different systems have been developed that giveinstant feedback on the amount of energy used and these includeEnergy Wiz (Petkov, Felix, et al., 2011; Petkov, Kobler, et al., 2011) ea mobile application which enables social comparison; Flo(Shrubsole, Lavrysen, Janse, &Weda, 2011)e a game for families andWattsup (Foster, Lawson, Blythe, & Cairns, 2010) e a social networkapplication. Furthermore, games have been designed regardingenergy use: the PowerHouse (Bång, Torstensson, & Katzeff, 2006),Power Explorer (Bang&Gustafsson, 2009;Gustafsson, Bang, & Svahn,2009) and Power Agent (Gustafsson, Katzeff, & Bång, 2009). PowerExplorer, for example, is a mobile game which provides feedbackabout electricity use in the home (Bang & Gustafsson, 2009). Bothcampaigns and systems can help facilitate and motivate positivebehaviour change.
1.2. Teenagers and energy use
The majority of previous research has focused on adult orhousehold level energy saving attitudes and behaviour. We areinterested in teenagers noting they ‘are the adult consumers oftomorrow’ (Gram-Hanssen, 2005, p. 1) who will be going on todevelop behaviours and make decisions that will have a large effecton their own personal energy use. Boeve-de Pauw, Doncher, andPetegem (2011) noted there is a lack of research into teenagers’attitudes and behaviours towards the environment. Little is knownabout how teenagers use energy and their attitudes towards energyand energy saving, although there are differences in energy usebetween adults and teenagers. Gram-Hanssen (2005) noted thatone teenager uses 20% more electricity than one adult (based ona database of 50,000 Danish households). She explored informationand technology use through nine qualitative interviews withteenagers aged 13e15 years and their parents and found that, whilethe teenagers owned communications technologies of varioustypes, there were notable differences in use and in energyconsumption e with some teenagers preferring to take part inoutdoor activities such as football.
Teenagers are known to be powerful influencers and can changethe behaviours of parents and the wider community (Knafo &Galansky, 2008). Teenagers are known to influence their parentsabout environmental issues with nearly a quarter of adults ratingtheir children as the main influence for social and environmentalmatters (National Ethical Investment Week, 2008). Many teenagersalso become involved in projects that help shape and develop theirown communities e.g. Duke of Edinburgh Award, UK.
1.3. Aim
This study is part of a three year project to design, develop andevaluate mobile solutions to reduce and change teenage energyuse. The project involves parallel work packages including designsessions with teenagers, expert design, designing cool technologies
for teenagers (Read et al., 2011), investigating technology possi-bilities and exploring teenagers as learners.
The study reported in this paper explored teenagers’ attitudestowards energy. This work will inform the development of behav-iour change interventions for teenagers to reduce their energy use.This research will also feed into further work in this area includingan online interactive questionnaire and also inform the design,development and evaluation of mobile solutions for teenagers toreduce energy use. Furthermore, a key aspect of this project is theengagement of teenagers by actively involving them in the researchprocess.
2. Method
To explore teenagers’ attitudes,multiple data collectionmethodswere used. This project involved two stages: 1) diaries and storiesand 2) focus groups. Written scenarios were developed from thediaries and stories by the researchers and used as prompts in thefocus groups sessions. Crivello, Camfield, and Woodhead (2009)state multiple data collection methods keep teenagers interestedin the research, appeal to teenagers’ different preferences andprovide data triangulation. In addition, Punch (2002) noted using ‘acombination of techniques can enable the data-generation process tobe fun and interesting for the participants and is effective in generatinguseful and relevant data’ (p. 337).
All stages of the research were carried out at the schools andorganisations involved. Participants were briefed about the studyand what they were required to do at the beginning of each stageand debriefed on completion of the task.
2.1. Participants
Participants were mainly recruited from schools and organisa-tions from across the North East of England to take part in theresearch. The school and organisations selected the teenageparticipants to approach and the teenagers were asked if theywould like to take part. In addition, two focus groups were con-ducted with undergraduate university students aged under 19years. 114 Teenagers (39 males and 75 females) from nine schoolsand organisations participated in at least one activity and wereaged between 10 and 19 years old (M ¼ 14, SD ¼ 2.94). Across thedata collection methods, 60 teenagers (24 males and 36 females)took part in the diary activity, 96 teenagers (38 males and 58females) completed a story and 40 teenagers (9 males and 31females) took part in the focus groups.
2.2. Diaries
The first data collectionmethod used was diaries. In comparisonto other data collection methods, diaries can be less invasive(Tinson, 2009) and enable the collection of data over a longerperiod of time (Gibson & Brown, 2009). We acknowledge there aredisadvantages related to using diaries including commitment tocomplete (Willig, 2008) and incomplete diaries (Tinson, 2009). Thediaries were collected from 60 teenagers and although some wereincomplete the majority were rich in detail and finished.
To gain insights into what teenagers view as energy use it wasdecided the meaning of energy would not be specified. In responseto any questions about what to includewithin the diaries, teenagerswere asked to decide themselves about what to record and weretold there were no right or wrong answers. The diaries enabled theteenagers to record their energy use over seven days and subse-quently use this information as a prompt for the following storyactivity. They also provided insight into teenagers’ views towards,and uses of, energy.
N. Toth et al. / Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e4438
Teenagers were each provided with a paper diary to record allthe different things they used in seven days that consumed energy.The diaries were an A4 size booklet with instructions included atthe front of the diary followed by a two page table for each of theseven days. The table required the teenager to list the time, whatthey did, what they used and the length of time they used it for.
2.3. Stories
The second data collection method was stories. Story sessionstook place one to two weeks following the completion of diaries.Teenagers were asked to bring with them their completed diary. Awritten brief was provided for the story activity the purpose beingto document all the different things teenagers use in a typical weekday and weekend which use energy. Teenagers used their diaries asprompts for the stories if needed. Some teenagers did not bringalong their diary to the story activity and completed their storywithout a diary and this is reflected in the discrepancy of thenumber of participants who completed the diaries (60 teenagers)and stories (96 teenagers). One researcher was present throughoutthe story sessions and provided materials for the stories includingplain and lined paper, pens, pencils, coloured felt tip pens, glue andcatalogues. Teenagers were able to choose which materials theyused and could write, draw, cut out pictures or use a combination ofthese approaches. Tinson (2009) discussed the use of collages toengage young people in research and in addition Banister andBooth (2005) used drawing rather than a cut and paste tech-nique. This method provided teenagers with different options toagain appeal to different preferences (Crivello et al., 2009) and toengage them in the project. As with the diaries, the researcher didnot specify the meaning of energy use. The story sessions lastedfrom approximately 30e60 min. 96 Stories were collected (seeFig. 1 for an example).
2.4. Initial analysis of the diaries and stories
An initial analysis of the diaries and stories was carried out bytwo members of the research team along with three othermembers of staff from Northumbria University who were allexperienced in qualitative analysis. This analysis identified initialthemes about teenagers’ attitudes and use of energy includingthemes about the types of energy and devices used and also thedifferent locations of energy use. Some initial differences betweenjunior and senior teens were seen. With regards to locations of
Fig. 1. Example of story collected.
energy use, senior teens tended to focus on energy use in theirhome whereas junior teens tended to consider other locations aswell, for example school. There were no apparent differencesbetween gender and this could perhaps reflect the sample bias withmore females than males taking part.
This data analysis was used to develop written scenarios asdetailed below.
2.5. Development of written scenarios
Eight written scenarios were developed that depicted how teen-agers use energy. The scenarios were developed by the researchersbased on the above data analysis and were therefore, based onteenagers’ own experiences and knowledge. Four scenarios weredeveloped for both senior and junior teenagers to portray thedifferences between the two age groupshighlightedwithin the initialanalysis. Two scenarios, one male and one female, were written forboth junior and senior teenagers to engage both male and femaleteenagers. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ versions of each scenariowere developedto generate discussion around the similarities and differences withthe teenagers’ own energy use. These scenarios were approximately150e300words in lengthanddetailedhowteenagers use energy. Thescenarios were used as prompts during the focus groups to exploreattitudes and generate discussion about energy use (Hazel,1995). Thescenarios were rich in detail and context as they were based onteenagers’ actual use and experience of energy. Fig. 2 details anextract from a scenario (senior teen, male).
2.6. Focus groups
The aim of the focus groups was to further explore teenagers’attitudes towards energy. There are several advantages of focusgroups including gathering views of a number of children (Hill,1997), enabling comments to be built upon by others (Hill, 1997),familiarity of the group (Mauthner, 1997) and that confidence maybe increased due the power balance changing with the company ofothers (Hill, 1997).
The researchers introduced the scenarios at the beginning ofeach focus group. The aim of the scenarios was to generatediscussion and help participants feel more at ease (Hazel, 1995).The scenarios for the relevant age group, both male and female,were used within the focus groups. Each participant was providedwith a copy of the scenarios (four scenarios per focus group). Eachpair of scenarios (good and bad) was read aloud by either partici-pants or the researcher. An informal interview schedulewas used tofirstly explore the scenarios and then subsequent areas aroundenergy, and energy saving. Also, the researchers introduced thatthey were interested in designing a device for teenagers that tellsthem about their energy use and asked teenagers to discuss theirideas for this device. The focus groups lasted from approximately25e60 min.
Four focus groups with junior teenagers (6 males and 16females) and three focus groups with senior teenagers (3 males and15 females) were carried out. The size of the focus groups rangedfrom three to eight teenagers.
2.7. Analysis
Thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) was carried out on all ofthe data collected from the diaries, stories and focus groups andstories by the research team. NVivo 9 software was used to organisethe data and analysis.
Thematic analysis involves different phases: 1) becomingfamiliar with the data; 2) initial coding; 3) developing, reviewingand defining themes (Braun & Clark, 2006). The recordings from the
Fig. 2. Extract from a scenario used in the focus group sessions with senior teenagers.
N. Toth et al. / Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e44 39
focus groups were transcribed verbatim which enabled the leadresearcher to become familiar with the data (Braun & Clark, 2006).The researcher also became familiar with the data through readingthe diaries, stories and focus group transcripts as well as listening tothe recordings of the focus groups. The next stage of the analysiswas ‘generating initial codes’ (Braun & Clark, 2006, p. 87) whichinvolved working through all the interview transcripts to code‘interesting features of the data’ (Braun & Clark, 2006, p. 87).Following initial coding, the researcher identified themes byorganising the initial codes into broader themes. The themes werethen reviewed by the research team to first ensure all coded datawithin each theme fitted there and second to ensure that all thethemes represent the data. Themes were defined and named by theresearch team and thematic maps used to assist with the analysis.
3. Results
Teenagers were from schools and organisations across the NorthEast of England. Throughout the multiple data collection methods,teenagers noted using a range of appliances including personaldevices such as mobile phones and shared devices such as TVs.
Several themes emerged during the thematic analysis Table 1provides an overview of these themes.
3.1. Energy use
This theme refers to the different types of energy highlighted byteenagers and ‘how’ teenagers use this energy including energy useas a habit.
Table 1Summary of themes.
Theme Brief description Subthemes
Energy use ‘What’ energyteenagers usedand ‘how’ teenagersused energy.
� Types of energy use� How energy is used
Locationsof energy use
Where teenagersused energy.
� Home� School
Sources ofinformation
Sources of informationabout energy use andenergy saving.
� Media� School� Parents and guardians� Other
Impact ofenergy use
Impact of energy use interms of the environment,future generationsand personal cost.
� Environment� Future generations� Cost
Barriers Several barriers tosaving energy.
� Knowledge� Lifestyle� Detached from the problem� Not responsible for
paying the bills� Habit� Peer influence� Design of appliances
Green teens Whether or notteenagers were concernedabout saving energy.
� Views about saving energy� Ways to save energy
3.1.1. Types of energyThe diary and story activities enabled teenagers to interpret the
term ‘energy’ themselves and therefore provided insight into ‘what’teenagers use and also their views about energy. The use ofscenarios within the focus groups helped to explore energyconsumption further.
Within the diaries and stories, a range of activities and appli-ances were included with differences highlighted between juniorand senior teenagers. Teenagers documented the use of householdappliances (e.g. TV, kettle, and toaster), personal appliances (e.g.hair straighteners), portable devices (e.g. mobile phone),computers (both desktops and laptops), gaming (e.g. gamesconsoles) and lighting.
Senior teenagers predominantly focused upon electrical energy,withother types of energymentionedwithin somediaries and stories.In comparison, with junior teenagers a wider range of energy typeswere included, for example teenagers’ own physical energy.
Other types of energy included within some stories and diarieswere:
� Water. Appliances and activities using water were mentionedby some junior and senior teenagers including showering,washing and brushing teeth.
� Transport. Different modes of transport were recorded by somejunior and senior teenagers including cars, walking and buses.
� Heating was rarely mentioned which could be due to the timeof year the data collection took place.
� Teenagers’ own energy. Some junior teenagers mentioned theirown energy use through a range of activities for exampleenergy used at school such as during breaks, reading and sport.
� No energy use. This was occasionally included by some juniorteenagers for example not using energy during a school lessonand sleeping.
� Food was occasionally mentioned by junior teenagers.
In the focus groups both junior and senior teenagers com-mented about different types of energy missing from the scenariosin comparison with their own energy use, for example heating andwater. However, discussions about these other types of energyweresometimes prompted by the researcher.
3.1.2. ‘How’ energy is usedTeenagers discussed ‘how’ they use energy during the focus
groups including the amount of energy used and use of appliances.Energy use can be seen to be part of teenagers’ lifestyles:
“Without energy we wouldn’t be able to do like hardly anything,nothing at all” (junior teen, female)
The amount of energy used was also discussed by junior andsenior teenagers including possible differences between adults andteenagers, possible differences between weekend and week daysand about others using “far too much energy” (junior teen, female).
There were differences between teenagers about ‘how’ they useappliances. Some junior teenagers discussed using the standbyoption, forgetting to turn appliances off or leaving them ‘plugged
N. Toth et al. / Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e4440
in’. Other junior teenagers and some senior teenagers discussedturning appliances and/or lights off:
“Because most of the time you just cannot be bothered orremember what you’ve used to turn it off in the first place.”
(junior teen, female)
In addition, both junior and senior teenagers discussed usingmore than one appliance at a time.
3.2. Location of energy use
Within the diaries and stories, the locations of energy usevaried and also differences between junior and senior teenagerswere highlighted. To summarise, teenagers tended to focus onenergy use within the home, although some other locations wereincluded particularly by junior teenagers. There were some diffi-culties determining where the energy use took place in the storiesand diaries. Junior teenagers tended to focus on activities andappliances which used energy within the home and/or schoolwith some other locations mentioned. The differences betweenthe locations included by junior teenagers suggest there are mixedviews about ‘where’ junior teenagers classify as their own energyuse.
In comparison, within the diaries and stories, senior teenagersfocused upon energy use in the home with many household andpersonal appliances included. Only a few diaries and storiesincluded energy used at school or energy use at other locations.Within the diaries, there were large time gaps between some diaryentries, for example from early morning until mid afternoon. Thiscould be interpreted as senior teenagers focussing only on energyuse within the home and not at school.
Within the focus groups, the discussions with both junior andsenior teenagers tended to focus on energy used within thehome. Portable devices were also mentioned such as mobilephones and iPods. School was sometimes discussed and energyused at a few other locations was briefly mentioned. The focusgroups further explored the locations of energy use with bothjunior and senior teenagers through discussions about howteenagers classify their energy use. Junior teenagers tended toconsider their energy use to be “what I turned on” (junior teen,male) and “stuff that you actually use” (junior teen, female). Inaddition, junior and senior teenagers tended not to classifyenergy used at school as their own energy or even theirresponsibility:
“.we’re not responsible, it’s teacher’s classrooms” (junior teen,female)
“It’s someone else’s responsibility” (senior teens, female)
Perhaps this could be linked to control over the energy used:
“.if you went in a classroom and turned the lights off someonemight get mad at you.it might be on for a reason.so just don’tmess with other people’s stuff” (senior teen, male)
However, a few teenagers were not in agreement about energyuse at school and future work needs to explore this aspect further.
The location of energy use is linked to the ‘energy use’ theme as‘what’ and ‘how’ energy is consumed by teenagers is related to‘where’ energy is used.
3.3. Sources of information
Several sources of information about energy use and energysaving were discussed by both junior and senior teenagers withinthe focus groups.
3.3.1. MediaMany types of media were discussed by junior and senior teen-
agers including TV, newspapers, adverts and the internet. Juniorteenagers also mentioned the radio and leaflets. For example:
“I remember I used to always leave my TV on standby until I saw anadvert on the TV saying it uses just as much energy as if you had iton or even more sometimes” (senior teen, male).
“You do get the odd advert about your carbon footprint.and howto reduce it, you can go online and see how electricity or energywhatever you use in a week.and then it will give you a list ofthings to say howmuch you can reduce it by” (senior teen, female)
3.3.2. SchoolJunior teenagers discussed different school lessons as sources of
information for energy use and/or energy saving, thesewere Science,English, Geography and Technology. Teachers were a source ofinformation, and books were also occasionally mentioned. Withinscience lessons, teenagers discussed knowledge of different types ofenergy resources including wind power, tidal power and solarpower, and environmental effects:
“.in school like you learn about like global warming and likewhat’ll what the effects are and everything” (junior teen, male)
Although senior teenagers also mentioned school as a source ofinformation, it was also discussed that the information was notrelevant to them and this may not be taken on-board by teenagers:
“But in school you sort of don’t really think about it that much it’sjust oh that’s what adults do I don’t know” (senior teen, female)
“If I did (get taught about it in school) I’ve probably forgot about itbecause it wasn’t anything to do with me” (senior teen, female)
3.3.3. Parents and guardiansParents and guardians were discussed by both junior and senior
teenagers to be a source of information for both energy use andenergy saving in relation to cost, turning appliances off and ways tosave energy:
“They (parents) like say don’t leave anything on too long becauselike you’ll waste everything and then you’ll like basically doing a bitto destroy the world” (junior teen, male)
“.he’s (dad) quite well up on sorting our energy out for like ourfamily and my nana. The other thing as well I think he’s thinking ofgetting solar panels as well at the moment” (senior teen, female)
Both junior and senior teenagers discussed the influence ofparents and guardians in relation to energy use and saving energyincluding devices/ways to save energy:
“Their (parents) attitude towards it can influence your attitudetowards it” (junior teen, female)
“My parents are quite eco friendly anyway so all our family are inthe habit of turning things off so they tell us off if we don’t” (juniorteen, female)
Some junior and senior teenagers discussed that their parentsand guardians turn off appliances, tell them about using too muchenergy and mention safety. This is related to the ‘energy use’ themedue to the possible influence of parents and guardians.
3.3.4. OtherSome other sources of information were discussed individually
by junior and senior teenagers including sales people, grandparents
N. Toth et al. / Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e44 41
and friends’ parents. Also some junior teenagers referred to energyuse and energy saving as general knowledge, for example oneparticipant commented “.it’s just something you know” (juniorteen, female).
3.4. Impact of energy use
The impact of energy use was discussed by both junior andsenior teenagers in terms of the environment, future generationsand personal impact in terms of cost.
3.4.1. EnvironmentThe environmental impact was discussed by both junior and
senior teenagers in terms of the ozone layer, global warming andCO2 emissions:
“Because if we don’t save energy then there’s going to be moregreenhouse gases which puts holes in.”
“Puts us into danger”
“Yeah puts holes in that ozone layer.” (junior teens)
“It’s got something to do with your carbon footprint” (junior teen,female)
Sources of information are linked to the environmental impactwith teenagers learning about the environmental impact fromthese sources for example school.
3.4.2. Future generationsThe impact upon future generations was discussed by junior and
senior teenagers in relation to energy resources running out:
“Because if we don’t save electricity then we we’re not going tohave any left in the future. Cos they say they can just generate it butthey can only just generate for a certain amount of time until wejust run out” (junior teen, male)
“.I heard this morning that’s there’s only enough fossil fuels in theearth for seventeen years and I thought wow that’s like only as oldas me but so I just don’t know where we’re going to get that muchenergy from in the future if the populations rising and so it’simportant to think about the future when talking about energy Ithink” (senior teen, female)
3.4.3. CostJunior and senior teenagers discussed cost to be a key issue in
relation to energy use.
“.you save energy you save money” (junior teen, female)
“It saves money” (senior teen, female)
Cost can be seen both as a consequence of energy use and also asa cause, something that shapes how energy is used.
“.cos we were like on a really tight budget.don’t really have theheating on very much at home so it’s like err pretty much enforcedthat you don’t put these things on.” (senior teen, female)
Junior and senior teenagers discussed that being concernedabout energy use was related to being responsible for paying thebills.
“You only like think about how much you’re using when youactually like pay for it.” (junior teen, female)
“Yeah I think it’s like a huge factor like if you’re paying the bill, thenyou’re going to be much more conscious about wasting electricity”(senior teen, female)
Furthermore, this was highlighted by junior teenagers asa difference between adults and teenagers which could lead adultsto being more concerned about energy use.
“I don’t think when you’re a teenager you really worry about it youdon’t really think about it it’s usually adults cos they do all thepaying the bills for the energy” (junior teen, female)
However, not all teenagers were in agreement about adultsbeing more concerned about saving energy.
It was raised that that cost tends to be the prominent concernrather than the environment.
“People are just worried about how much it will cost them ratherthan what it’s doing” (junior teen, female)
“.I think for most people it’s the money side rather than theenvironmental damage” (senior teen, male)
“.the environment stuff only stems from your money worries.”
(senior teen, male)
Senior teenagers also discussed the effect of them paying theirown bills now and in the future. Some senior teenagers living awayat university discussed that their energy bills are currently includedwithin their rent at a fixed price:
“.I kind of know the vast majority of it is included in my rent soI’m not too worried about since my rent pays for it so.I’m gettingmy money’s worth” (senior teen, female)
Other senior teenagers discussed how paying their own energybills have led them to change their energy use:
“I pay my own bills (laughing)..Yeah I’d leave my bedroomlights on, leave the telly on while I went downstairs and had my teaand when I left the living room, I’d leave the telly on. But now if Ilike leave a room I turn the lights off, turn the TV off, turn every-thing off by the wall as well just in case (laughing)” (senior teen,female)
The impact of energy use is linked to ‘sources of information’ assources of information can affect teenagers’ awareness of theimpact of energy use.
3.5. Barriers to saving energy
Junior and senior teenagers discussed several barriers to savingenergy.
3.5.1. KnowledgeFirst, lack of knowledge can be seen to be a barrier to saving
energy:
“.some people don’t know how big a problem it is.” (junior teen,female)
“I think maybe if like at school people were taught like especiallylike when they’re teenagers like about how their energy use can likeaffect the environment or like even just cost their parents obviouslythey want their parents to be able to like afford stuff like if they gottaught more about that they’d be, they’d try to save energy moreso” (senior teen, female)
Furthermore, confusion was also highlighted by one seniorteenager:
“There’s just like so many ways that everyone talks about theenvironment now like and I don’t think you really know which wayyou’re helping. I get confused with how you’re helping the envi-ronment like” (senior teen, female)
N. Toth et al. / Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e4442
This links to education which was discussed by some seniorteenagers:
“People need educating like.even if not just like what it’ll happenwhat the impact will be if we don’t” (senior teen, female)
3.5.2. LifestyleSecond, aspects relating to lifestyle can be seen as a barrier. As
discussed previously, the energy and appliances that teenagers useare part of their lifestyle. Some teenagers discussed not changingtheir lifestyles and that saving energy can be inconvenient:
“I think people know about it, it’s just like they don’t want to likethey don’t want it to take over their lives” (junior teen, male)
“It’s a good idea but it’s a bit of a pain” (senior teen, female)
Also, some junior and senior teenagers stated they do not thinkabout energy use:
“I do think it is, it is important but I don’t know I wish I’d like triedto save energy more but I never think about it really” (senior teen,female)
3.5.3. Detached from the problemA potential barrier to saving energy is that teenagers may feel
detached from energy use and saving energy, for example:
“I think it’s quite it can be a needless task that some that’s whatpeople can see it as.cos it’s like well we don’t how it’s going tomatter and we’re not going to be around when it changes so”(senior teen, female)
3.5.4. Not responsible for paying the billsAnother barrier to saving energy is that teenagers are not
responsible for paying the energy bills. This links to cost within theimpact of energy use theme. Junior and senior teenagers discussednot paying the energy bills either because their parents andguardians are responsible for this or because their energy bills areincluded within their rent:
“You only think about how much you use when you exactly likehave to pay for it” (junior teen, female)
“Just cos the bills are already paid for so” (senior teen)
3.5.5. HabitHabit can be seen to be a barrier to energy saving with some
junior and senior teenagers discussed that energy use and savingenergy can be a habit:
“It’s just a routine that you get into, what you turn off and don’t it’shard to change” (junior teen, female)
“.I’m probably more like (scenario) b as well I think that’s ratherthan me doing it consciously it’s just because I’ve done it for somany years, cos every time I leave my house I turn the light off so Isuppose it’s just over the years I’ve done it so much it’s like habitrather than any conscious decision” (senior teen, male)
3.5.6. Peer influenceA potential barrier to saving energy is peer influence. Both
junior and senior teenagers discussed that saving energy can beseen as “not cool”:
“.it’s like it’s uncool to be eco friendly sometimes” (junior teen,female)
Furthermore, it was discussed by some senior teenagers thatsaving energy does not tend to be a priority for teenagers:
“I think when you’re.like 14, 15, 16 you already think your life’sdramatic enough.to be bothered thinking about turning lights offand energy saving” (senior teen, female)
3.5.7. EffortSenior teenagers discussed that the design of appliances can
hinder saving energy and therefore this can be seen as a barrier tosaving energy. For example, the design of televisions means thatthey have to turn them off at the wall or leave on standby:
“I don’t know why people have made telly’s like that when theyharp on about electrical saving” (senior teen, male)
The barriers to saving energy have implications for the design ofbehaviour change interventions to reduce teenage energy use.Behaviour change interventions need to focus on the barriers pre-venting the target group from changing (Steg & Vlek, 2009; Stern,2011). Previous research (Lorenzoni, Nicholson-Cole, & Whit-marsh, 2007) explored barriers for engaging with climate changewith adults and students and there are links with this currentresearch, for example one barrier identified by Lorenzoni et al.(2007) was ‘lack of knowledge’. This current work identifiedbarriers to saving energy for teenagers and provides an initialinsight into the barriers to address for teenagers. These barriers caninform the development of behaviour change interventions for thispopulation.
3.6. Green teens
This refers to teenagers’ views about saving energy includingwhether they are concerned and if they view this as important.Teenagers also discussed ways to save energy including devices tomonitor or save energy.
3.6.1. Views about saving energyThere were mixed views about whether or not teenagers are
conscious and concerned about saving energy. Some junior teen-agers discussed that saving energy is important and this was linkedto the impact of energy use including the impact upon the envi-ronment, future generations and cost. For example:
“Because if we don’t save electricity then we we’re not going tohave any left in the future.” (junior teen, male)
Junior teenagers had mixed views about whether teenagers areconcerned about energy and saving energy. For example, in relationto the scenarios it was discussed that “.not all teenagers would likejust leave everything on.” (junior teen, male). This links to thedifferences between teenagers about how they use energy.
Furthermore, some teenagers are not concerned about energyand energy saving.
“You don’t care it’s not one of your problems” (junior teen, male)
This was sometimes linked to the cost of energy with adultsbeing responsible for paying the bills.
“But if you don’t have to pay for it you don’t care” (junior teen,male)
Age was raised as having possible affects upon whether teen-agers’ attitudes towards energy and energy saving. There weremixed views about which age group (older or younger teenagers)use more energy. Some senior teenagers discussed changing howthey use energy due to “growing up” and “being more considerate” in
N. Toth et al. / Journal of Environmental Psychology 34 (2013) 36e44 43
addition to paying their own bills. Furthermore, senior teenagerssuggested energy savingwasmore important to younger teenagers.
The ‘green teens’ theme links to other themes. Firstly, the‘energy use’ theme could be linked to ‘green teens’ becausewhether teenagers are concerned about energy and energy savingcould be affected by and affect ‘what’ and ‘how’ energy is used byteenagers. Secondly, the location of energy use could affect teen-agers’ views and opinions regarding whether they are green teens.For example, if teenagers do not feel responsible for energyconsumed in school they will do little to save it. Thirdly, the impactof energy use is linked to the ‘green teens’ theme with teenagersdiscussing the importance of and concern about energy use andsaving in relation to the impact of energy use. In addition, sources ofinformation could affect whether or not teenagers are concernedabout energy use and saving.
In contrast, teenagers’ concerns about energy may not be re-flected in their actual energy use. This relationship needs to beexplored further.
3.6.2. Ways to save energyVarious ways to save energy were discussed by both junior and
senior teenagers. These included devices to monitor or savedomestic energy. Some junior and senior teenagers were aware ofavailable devices developed by energy companies to monitorenergy use, although they were not currently using them:
“I’ve seen these meters that they’re always advertised in the tell-y.you can plug it into your room and then you could leaveeverything on cos you forget and then you would just turn off whatyou want on that one meter” (junior teen, male)
Other ways that energy can be monitored and saved were dis-cussed by junior and senior teenagers. Teenagers were either usingthese ways to save energy or were aware of them. Ways to includeenergy included energy saving light bulbs, car sharing and recy-cling. Sometimes negative aspects about these ways to save energywere raised.
During the focus groups some further questions were discussedabout monitoring energy use within the home and sharing thisinformation with other people. There were mixed views about theoverall idea of monitoring energy use in the home, sharing thisinformation within and outside of the home. The possibility ofhaving a competitionwith friends about the amount of energy usedwas raised. With regards to sharing this information with neigh-bours the type of relationship people had was a key factor. Someteenagers stated they wouldn’t mind sharing this informationwhereas others were not happy to share it. Due to the mixedresponses about sharing this information, it is suggested that thedevice is designed to enable teenagers to choose and control whothey share information with.
3.7. Discussion and conclusion
We found that the variety of data collection methods usedengaged and helped to keep teenagers interested in the project.This demonstrates the value of using multiple methods with thispopulation and we recommend future projects with teenagersutilise multiple data collection methods. In regards to the diaries,we found approximately one third of participants completed thestory activity without completing the diary. However, the diariesreturned provided insight into teenagers’ energy use and wereoften rich in detail and context. For the story activity, we foundparticipants used different methods and materials to documenttheir stories (drawing, writing, cutting out pictures and a combi-nation). We recommend future research using stories includesa range of methods and materials for teenagers to select from.
Previous research with younger children aged 4e5 years and 10e11years utilised prompts (replica food items and picture cards) withinfocus groups (Fielden, Sillence, & Little, 2011) and found these to beuseful to aid discussion. This research also found the writtenscenarios useful to generate discussion with teenagers andrecommend the use of prompts in focus groups with this age group.
This exploratory analysis has highlighted potential differencesbetween junior and senior teenagers in relation to energy use.Senior teenagers tended to focus upon personal energy use andjunior teenagers tended to focus upon a wider range of types andlocations of energy use. This has implications for education,research and design suggesting a targeted personalised approachmight be more appropriate for senior teenagers. This work runsparallel with the other strands of this research project and will feedinto the design and development of mobile solutions for teenagersto reduce energy use.
The schools and organisations selected the participants toapproach about taking part and this leads to possible bias in theresults and implications, which is evident in the imbalance of thenumber of males and females who took part (39 males and 75females). However, within the green teens theme thereweremixedopinions about whether teenagers are concerned about savingenergy highlighting that are a range of views were found. Asmentioned above, a questionnaire is being developed to explorethese findings further and a large sample will be recruited.
Teenagers are taught about energy within school (as seen withinsources of information) however it is unclear whether this knowl-edge is transferred outside of school to the home environment andthis area needs to be explored further. Future stages of the projectwill further explore teenagers’ attitudes, including the developmentof an online interactive questionnaire. Furthermore, this work willalso inform the design of behaviour change interventions.
In conclusion, multiple data collection methods have providedan initial understanding of teenagers’ attitudes towards energyconsumption. Teenagers appear to have an awareness of termsrelating to energy and the impact of energy use, for example globalwarming and CO2 emissions. However, it is unclear whether teen-agers fully understand these terms and further exploration into thisarea is required.
Acknowledgements
This project is joint-funded by the Research Councils UK DigitalEconomy and Energy Programmes. Thank you to Professor PamBriggs at Northumbria University for her helpful comments andsuggestions on this manuscript.
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