The relationship between three NGO classifications and ECOSOC NGO representatives' attitudes toward selected global environmental issues

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), henceforth ECOSOC NGOs, are considered important channels at the UN for public opinion concerning global issues. Attention should be paid to ECOSOC NGO representatives' attitudes toward global issues, as their attitudes often affect the expression of public opinion at the UN. To date, researchers have never carefully explored the predictors of the representatives' attitudes.; This study investigates whether there is a relationship between three NGO classifications (i.e., location, category, and area) and ECOSOC NGO representatives' attitudes toward selected global environmental issues.; Data were collected through a post-mail/e-mail survey of ECOSOC NGO representatives whose organizations are listed on the 1997/NGO/Lists Parts I/II. A questionnaire, 2000 Survey of Environmentally Sound Sustainable Development, was developed for this study to measure representatives' attitudes toward taking international action on 14 global environmental issues on a 7-point scale ranging from 7 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree ). A total of 391 representatives participated in this survey.; The data were analyzed using a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses. This study had two sets of independent variables: three main effect variables (location, category, and area) and three two-way interaction effect variables (location x category, location x area, and category x area). These variables were treated as dummy variables. The study had 15 dependent variables (opinion scores about each of 14 global environmental issues and the sum of these 14 opinion scores). Since all the dependent variables had significant negative skewness, they were transformed (using either “reflect and logarithmic transformation,” or “reflect and inverse transformation,” where appropriate). The overall level of significance was set at .05.; The data analysis indicated that there is no relationship between the three classifications and ECOSOC NGO representatives' attitudes toward selected global environmental issues. Therefore, this study suggests that each of the three classifications may be a poor predictor of ECOSOC NGO representatives' attitudes toward such issues. The study does not confirm the belief that groups (to which a person belongs) are important factors in public attitude and opinion.