Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences
Volume 11, No. 1, 2013
DOI: 10.36108/ijss/3102.11.0130
Socio- Demographic Factors as Discriminants of Environmental Knowledge and Attitude of Residents of Ibadan Metropolis to Solid Waste Disposal
Eugenia A. Okwilagwe and Olufemi A.Adigun
Institute of Education, University of Ibadan, Ibadan
Abstract
The study is a non-experimental research which was designed to investigate and explain the environmental knowledge and attitude of residents of Ibadan metropolis to solid waste disposal with respect to eleven socio-demographic factors. Multi-stage stratified sampling techniques were used to obtain a representative sample of 831 households. The Household Solid Waste Disposal Attitude Scale (a= 0.79), was designed and administered on respondents. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and discriminant analysis. Residents’ characteristics are similar to those of a growing population that is peculiar to urban centres in developing countries. No significant difference was found ill both knowledge and attitude to waste disposal of residents in terms of local government area ranking. In terms of predicting residents’ knowledge and attitude to waste disposal through eleven variables, distinct composition of the LGAs only associated significantly with attitude to solid waste disposal, e = 0.981,~.2 (U.N:8.1) = 16.17, P<0.05, but was not associated with knowledge. It was recommended that education of the entire populace, most especially enculturation of youths at school and traders in the various markets, should be taken into serious consideration by all tiers of government, stakeholders in education, administration and Environmental Protection Agencies in order to achieve the health objectives of the MDGs.
Keywords: Environmental attitude, Solid waste, Discriminant analysis, Ibadan, Environmental knowledge