“Keepers of Hope”: Parental Perceptions of Children’s Climate-Action Efficacy and Parents’ Climate-Action Intentions

Children may introduce climate-change ideas into household conversations, but survey evidence collected from parents cannot establish changes in children’s competencies or family behaviour. This quantitative, cross-sectional study examined associations among parents’ evaluations of their children’s climate-related knowledge, systems reasoning and capacity for household climate action, alongside parents’ own climate-action intentions and engagement with climate education. Questionnaire responses were obtained from 110 parents in the context of a school-based climate education initiative in Israel. Seven composite scores were computed from item-level questionnaire data. Internal consistency was examined using Cronbach’s alpha, and bivariate correlations and a heteroscedasticity-robust multiple regression were estimated. Parents’ ratings of children’s conceptual knowledge and systems reasoning correlated positively with parent-attributed child climate-action efficacy (r = 0.471 and 0.587, respectively). In a simultaneous multiple regression including six variables, systems reasoning was positively associated with parent-attributed child climate-action efficacy (B = 0.474, 95% CI [0.221, 0.727], p < 0.001); the corresponding association for conceptual knowledge was not statistically distinguishable from zero after adjustment (B = 0.126, p = 0.441). The model accounted for 45.5% of the variance in the sample (R2 = 0.455). Further construct-validation work is needed, particularly for the learning-challenges composite, which demonstrated limited internal consistency and potential item heterogeneity. The results describe patterns in parents’ concurrent judgements rather than causal programme effects, children’s directly assessed competencies, or verified household behaviour. The study illustrates the value, and methodological limits, of using parental reports to investigate the perceived intergenerational reach of climate education.