Investigating the Relationship Between Livelihood Capitals and Environmental Attitude: Evidences from Rural Households in Dena County, Iran

Irreparable damage to the environment due to environmental degradation necessitates specific attention to the humans’ environmental attitudes which is chiefly affected by individuals’ livelihood capitals. Hence, this study aimed at investigating the relationship between livelihood capitals as independent variables and environmental attitude as dependent variable among rural households in the central district of Dena County, Iran. The present study was a descriptive-analytic survey. The statistical population included 2500 rural households in the studied area. Consequently, 300 households were selected by cluster random sampling. The instrument for assessing the livelihood capitals was a structured, researcher-made and by which its face validity and reliability were confirmed applying a panel of experts and calculating the Cronbach's Alpha, respectively. Furthermore, the questionnaire by Dunlop et al. (2000) were employed to measure environmental attitude. The results of Pearson coefficient indicated that the relationship between social, human and natural capital and environmental attitude was positive whereas the relationship between physical and also financial capitals and environmental attitude was negative. Nonetheless, only the relationship between financial capital and environmental attitude was statistically significant. Thus, making people with higher financial capital aware of the environmental crisis seems essential.