Effectiveness of an Education Program on Youth's Awareness towards Household Waste Control

Abstract


Introduction:
he increase in the amount of wastes and the concomitant rise in the hazards which it poses are having a severe impact on global and local environments, natural resources, public health and local economies and living conditions, and in this way threatening the attainment of relevant Millennium Development Goals. Various diseases, including cancers, result from exposure to hazardous emissions, mainly from open burning and substandard incineration of wastes (2) .
Before investigating the youth can play a role in addressing environmental issues, it is important to provide some background and establish a clear context by identifying the current state of the environment. The nature, extent and severity of environmental problems vary tremendously from one part of the world to another. It is perhaps most logical to begin with an overview of the state of the global environment, providing a snapshot of its present condition, as well as a more detailed and revealing assessment of past trends and likely future developments. This level of analysis is justified because certain issues-most notably global warming and ozone layer depletion are intrinsically global problems and therefore of concern to everyone in the world (3) .
Environmental education (EE) evolved in the late 1960's when the conservation of resources did not seem to be sufficient to combat the complex factors associated with environmental degradation, such as disposing of toxic waste, disappearing biodiversity, and declining air and water quality. Citizen involvement was required to support legislation to guide industry and agencies, and education was needed to prepare citizens for this role (4) .

Methodology:
A Quasi-Experimental design was conducted with application of pre and posttest approaches through the period of April 5th 2009 to August 5th 2010 in order to examine the research hypotheses.
A non-probability (Quota Sample) is conducted on (80) youth of Young Jesus Sodality have been recruited from Baghdad city with respect to the youth's age and sex distribution as being evidenced by Central Statistical System, Ministry of Planning (1) . Those who are involved in the educational program of household waste control at Parish of Saint Toma the Apostle Catholic Church. They are divided into two equal groups of (40) youth for the study group which is exposed to such program, the remaining is the control group which is not exposed to the educational program.
This program has been modified throughout the review of relevant programs which are applied in other countries in order to Increase the youth's awareness towards household waste control.
A pilot study was conducted to determine the validity and reliability of the education program and study's instrument which is used for measuring the effectiveness of the education program on youth's awareness towards household waste control.
Data collection is initiated from 12th of October to 7th of December 2009, and it was analyzed with descriptive statistical data analysis of (frequency and percentage) and Level of youth's awareness towards household waste control is determined through computation of minimum and maximum scores as Barely (49-85), well (86-122), Better (123-159), and Best (160-196). In addition Inferential Statistical Data Analysis approaches are performed in order to accept or reject the research hypotheses related to this study which include One-way analysis of variance test (ANOVA) and multiple comparisons (Least-Significant Difference).      The table indicates that there are significant differences between means of pre, post 1 and post 2 tests of study group. But there are no significant differences between means of such tests in control group. The table depicts that there are significant differences just between means of pre test and both post tests 1and 2, and vas-versus in study group. No significant differences are found between means of these tests in control group.

Discussion:
Throughout the course data analysis, the study and control groups are matched with regard to their education, residential area, and socioeconomic status. Findings of the distribution of these characteristics have indicated that most of the youth is intermediate school graduates, urbanized, and at moderate socioeconomic status (Table 1).
Relative to their education, the finding that emerged is due to the learning failure situations and discontinuance. This fact is reported by the study sample. With respect to the finding of residential area that reflects their civilization mobility is clear and obvious throughout seeking job-opportunity and social development. In addition, the short distance between urban and suburban that more likely to be urban ones. Support for this finding is presented by Onogawa and others (2006) who stated that almost three quarters of the world's population will live in cities by the middle of 21st century (5) .
In regard to the participants' socioeconomic status. The finding has reflected that the predominant level of the status as moderate one which represents the nature of our society.
The study findings show that nuclear family is to be the most predominant one for all groups (Table 1). Relatively, this finding is reflecting the nature of the culture of the study population's families.
Relative to their occupation, approximately half of them are students (Table 1). This finding is supported by Census of Central Statistical System (1997) that presents the maximum numbers of the age group of 15-24 are students (1) .
Concerning youth's awareness towards household waste control, data analysis reveals that large number of participants have better awareness towards household waste control ( Table 2). As they have stated that the television environmental programs have an important role in increasing their awareness towards household waste control. The relationship between awareness and the household waste is supported through that awareness of both kinds of pollution (local pollution and global pollution), among other things, that has led to the environmentalism movement, which seeks to limit the human impact on the environment (6) . Aside from having a greater stake in the more distant future, young people are especially wellplaced to promote environmental awareness simply because they often have better access to information about the environment than do their elders.
In parts this is a matter of having being exposed to more environmental education in schools, at least in the developed world and perhaps more sporadically elsewhere. Aside from exposure in formal education, youth have lived all their lives in an era in which environmental issues have loomed large. Established anti-ecological ways of thinking and behaving are not ingrained in young people, and they can introduce fresh ideas and outlooks to issues (3) .
Determination the effectiveness of an educational program on youth's awareness towards household waste control is employed through the application of one-way analysis of variance between means of the Pre, Post1, Post2 tests for both groups. In regard to such analysis the findings that emerged shows the effectiveness of an educational program on youth's awareness of study group (Table 3).
In order to be confident about this findings multiple comparisons, Least Significant Difference (L.S.D) of one-way analysis of variance approach is applied to determine the significant deference between each pair of test in both study and control groups. The outcome presents that the education program raise youth's awareness throughout post tests and post test II (Table  4). Lucas and Gilles (2003) support such evidence through their reports that the objective of the health education is to make people value health as a worth while asset, with a desire to live long and feel well; and with the support of health personnel, to learn what they can do as individuals, families and communities to protect and improve their own health. The more people value health, the more they will be willing to make the appropriate allocation of resources to promote safeguard their own health (7) . United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (1997) stated that the environmental education is an incentive for sustainable development.
Also education is critical for promoting sustainable development and improving capacity of people to address environment and development issues (8) . Environmental education has an important role to play in the promotion of environment awareness. Environmental education is the first step in enhancing this knowledge base (3) .As the project progressed, youth programs were expanded and replicated beyond the project area. Throughout the project, more than 2,000 youth increased their awareness and knowledge about urban nonpoint source pollution, sources and prevention through these education programs (9) .
Good environmental education (EE) programs are based on a strong foundation of nature awareness and conservation education, and evolve to prepare older youth to analyze issues and choose responsible environmental behaviors (4). Office of Compliance Assistance and Pollution Prevention (1997) mentioned that the other barriers will be eliminated through education, partnership initiatives and a strong commitment to pollution prevention. As a society, we can accomplish the most in preventing pollution by educating ourselves and working cooperatively (10) . Such data analysis results are supported by Lucas and Gills (2003) who report that the assessment of the success of health education should be related to the objectives of the program that may increase awareness of relevant health issues, and knowledge that is based on credible information and behavioral responses (7) . Recommendations: The study recommends that the role of television upon youth's awareness can be activated through presenting the household waste control educational program which may facilitate to bring the information for long distance area and increase wide-range awareness of youth.