Urban-rural differences in environmental concern among teenagers living in the United States and Russia

This paper examines the relationship between the residential living area of teenagers in the United States and Russia and their environmental concern. Two contrasting hypotheses were proposed. The first hypothesis suggested that teenagers living in an urban area would show more concern for the environment and the second hypothesis suggested that teenagers living in a rural area would show more environmental concern. Additionally, the association between living area and teenagers’ concern for the environment was hypothesized to be stronger in Russia than in the United States. The hypotheses were tested by conducting a multiple regression analysis using the 2015 dataset from the ‘Programme for International Student Assessment’ (PISA). The sample used for the analysis consisted of 7,723 teenagers. The results of the analysis suggest that teenagers living in an urban area have significantly more concern for the environment than teenagers living in a rural area, however the size of this effect is not very substantial. The results showed no evidence that suggests that the association between living area and environmental concern is stronger in Russia than in the United States.