An Investigation of�Pro-Environmental Preservation Community Perceptions in Naperville, Illinois

September 1, 2022 | PSPA 608

Context

• Distributed in Fall 2016
• Sole source of secondary data
• 198 items 🡪 11 questions for study
• 1,395 respondents 🡪 sample of 719

2016 Community Survey

• Survey focused on four policy areas�approved by Naperville’s City Council:
• Task 1: Public Safety
• Task 2: High-Performing Government
• Task 3: Economic Development
• Task 4: Financial Stability
• Why not sustainability development?

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Research question

Are households with young children more likely to support residential sustainability development in Naperville?

• Independent variable
• Dichotomous: households with�or without children under age 10

Next steps

• Additional questions and selection of variables
• 3 independent (added length of residency and race)
• 4 dependent (1^st is index based on 5 questions)
• 3 x 4 = 12 hypotheses
• Statistical analyses to test hypotheses
• H1 thru H4: t-tests and chi-square (except DV1)
• H5 thru H8: simple linear regression + correlation
• H9 thru H12: chi-square (except DV1) and ANOVA
• Findings and recommendations

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Dependent and independent variables

Dependent and independent variables

Recognizing what is significant

Influence of young children on their families’ prioritization of everyday efforts to be more sustainable may be less significant than other demographic factors…

• How long have they resided in the community?
• What is the respondent’s race or ethnicity?

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Our study’s takeaway:

There was NO significant association between indicating support for sustainability and living in a household with or without children under age 10.

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Length of residency matters

Length of residency matters

Hypothesis 9

ANOVA only – analysis of variance

• DV1 is continuous index variable, thus chi-square n/a

Hypothesis 10

ANOVA and Chi-square

Focus on what is significant

Statistical analyzation of select survey data indicated:

• There is NO significant association between a respondent’s attitude towards a range of residential sustainability efforts and their living in a household with or without children.
• There is a SIGNIFICANT relationship between how long a respondent has lived in Naperville and their perceived support for the City's residential recycling collection and its investment in environmental initiatives, BUT IT IS SUBTLE.
• There are SIGNIFICANT mean differences between Non-white and White respondents in terms of perceived importance regarding the City's actions to support environmental sustainability and perceived satisfaction with Naperville's investment in environmental initiatives BUT THE CORRELATIONS WERE NOT STRONG.

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The takeaway:

Naperville needs to do more to encourage support of pro-environmental programs by all demographics, and they could benefit from soliciting feedback from non-white and long-term residents to determine why they differ from other groups in this sample

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Thank you!

Questions?

Elvira M. Skuzinski

An Investigation of�Pro-Environmental Preservation Community Perceptions in Naperville, Illinois