ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AS INFLUENCES ON GROWTH ATTITUDES - A RESEARCH NOTE

Two sets of items from Albrecht et al. (1986) are used to examine small town residents' attitudes about the environment and the economy. One scale measures a general growth ethic while the other measures attitudes concerning urban growth. Concern over the environment and the economy are assessed with items drawn from Blocker and Eckberg (1989). Results indicate that environmental concerns are a stronger influence on growth attitudes than are economic considerations and that certain sociodemographic variables are weakly associated with this tendency. In the small town population studied, which is in the process of making decisions about growth, environmental concerns play a stronger role in influencing attitudes about growth than do concerns over the economy.