Endangering Just Sustainabilities: An IPD Meta-Analysis on the Social Stratification of Youth Environmental Attitudes in 65 Countries

This study examines global socioeconomic inequality in environmental attitudes among young people. Using novel data from an international study of nearly 700,000 individuals across 65 countries, we combine a two-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis with a machine learning (Meta-CART) approach to examine cross-national variation in inequality in environmental attitudes and its associations with the macrostructural dimensions of capacity, distribution, and institutional openness. Higher socioeconomic status (SES) is consistently associated with stronger environmental preservation attitudes in both primary and secondary school. However, the strength of this relationship varies across countries. Revealing a structural paradox, press freedom and gross domestic product (GDP) interact to moderate SES disparities: the largest gaps appear in nations with both high institutional openness and affluence. Contrary to expectations, human development (HDI) and academic freedom do not exert consistent effects. The results suggest that national conditions shape the social distribution of environmental attitudes and that institutional enablers of knowledge may reinforce environmental engagement among advantaged youth, challenging the equity aspirations of sustainability education.