Effects of a school garden experiential intervention project on primary pupils’ environmental behaviour

Urban Farm DB summary

This study tested the effectiveness of a specially designed school garden project aimed at improving intrinsic motivation (enjoyment, satisfaction/effort), social skills (responsibility, cooperation), and behavior (attitude, intention) as components of environmental behavior, among 152 fourth- and sixth-grade primary school pupils in Greece (M = 10.89 years, SD = 0.99), assigned to intervention and control groups. Pupils were tested before the intervention, at its end, and two months afterward. Over an eight-week intervention of two hours per week aligned with the Greek school curriculum, the intervention group attended the school garden project while the control group attended unrelated projects. The analysis found the program had a long-lasting effect on pupils' environmental behavior.