Young people’s understandings and attitudes towards marine debris: a systematic scoping review

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of a systematic and rigorous scoping review of all relevant peer-reviewed literature published up until April 2020 focused on young people’s understandings and attitudes towards marine debris. The review of relevant literature reveals there are only limited peer-reviewed studies that engage with the issues of marine pollution from a child’s or young person’s perspective (n = 20). Findings show that the studies were diverse in aim and scope but generally clustered around three main themes: children and young people’s understandings and attitudes towards marine debris; their environmental awareness and knowledge following conservation activities and interventions; and finally behaviour change patterns reported following such interventions. It is our contention that further research addressing the long-term effects of marine debris environmental education programs developed by young people for young people will be of significant contribution to this scarce literature and field of inquiry.