The purpose of this study was to explore college students’ understanding of sustainability and, specifically, the extent to which students see social justice as being integral to sustainability.,Between fall 2015 and 2017, an online survey study was deployed to students at a Midwestern University in the USA to assess attitudes and concerns about environmental issues and awareness of the university’s activities related to these issues. This analysis included ten assessment items from a larger study, of which 1,929 participants were included in the final sample. A chi-square goodness-of-fit and variable cluster analysis were performed on the included items.,Items such as “recycling,” “economic viability” and “fair treatment of all” were identified as integral to the concept of sustainability, while items such as “growing organic vegetables” and “reducing meat consumption” had high levels of “not applicable” and “don’t know” responses, with differences arising across gender and class standing. Social justice-related items were seen as more distally connected to sustainability.,This study is limited by a non-random sample of students.,College students tend not to recognize the integral nature of social justice or the relevance of food to sustainability, providing an opportunity for universities to better prepare their students for a sustainable future.,Universities might adopt policies and curricula that address these areas of ignorance.,This study is among the first to identify specific areas of college students’ lack of understanding about sustainability.

中文翻译：

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大学生对社会正义作为可持续发展的理解

这项研究的目的是探讨大学生对可持续性的理解，尤其是学生在多大程度上将社会公正视为可持续性的组成部分。2015年秋天至2017年之间，在线调查研究被部署到中西部的学生美国大学评估对环境问题的态度和关注，以及对大学与这些问题有关的活动的认识。该分析包括来自较大研究的十个评估项目，最终样本中包括1,929名参与者。对所包括的项目进行了卡方拟合优度和变量聚类分析。诸如“回收”，“经济可行性”和“公平对待所有人”等项目被确定为可持续性概念的组成部分，而诸如“种植有机蔬菜”和“减少肉类消耗”之类的项目则对“不适用”和“不知道”的回答很高，性别和阶级地位上也存在差异。人们认为与社会正义相关的项目与可持续性的联系更为紧密。这项研究受到非随机样本学生的限制。大学生倾向于不认识社会正义的整体性质或食品与可持续性的相关性，这是大学为学生更好地为可持续发展的未来做好准备的机会。大学可能会采取针对这些无知领域的政策和课程。这项研究是首次发现大学生对可持续发展缺乏了解的特定领域之一。