This study analyzes responses from 505 undergraduates from the United States, Mexico, and Brazil to the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale. This instrument typically measured the separation from nature (Human Exception Paradigm) from the NEP as a dichotomy. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a trifactorial structure emerged from the Brazilians and Mexicans and a bifactorial from the U.S. sample. The United States held the most dichotomous view, the Mexicans were also dichotomous but less extreme, and the Brazilians seemed to see no need for a separation between nature and growth.

This paper investigates the dimensions of sustainable behavior, with a particular focus on the aspects of self-care, caring for others, and caring for the environment. Its aim was to test the assumption that sustainable behavior not only encompasses pro-social and proenvironmental actions, as the current research acknowledges, but also behaviors that are directed toward self-preservation and care. A subscale of self-care specifically developed for this research was added to a series of previously validated instruments assessing altruistic, equitable, pro-ecological, and frugal behaviors to examine the personal, social, and physical environmental aspects of sustainable behavior. Responses from a sample of 290 participants confirmed the three-dimensional structure of sustainable behavior. Results suggest sustainability, understood as a chain of interdependences between the individual, society, and nature, begins with self-care and continues with caring for others, and with caring for the biosphere, which, in turn, affords for a more sustainable environment for the individual.

Se estudiaron las respuestas que dieron 200 habitantes de una ciudad del norte mexicano a un instrumento que investigaba el grado de riesgo percibido en 84 situaciones. Éstas incluían peligros potenciales debidos a la naturaleza, uso de tecnologías, conductas criminales y comportamientos personales de riesgo. Los sujetos calificaron qué tan peligrosa era cada situación para el medio ambiente físico (riesgo ambiental), para la sociedad (riesgo social) y para sí mismos (riesgo personal). Se examinaron, asi mismo, conductas de cuidado del medio ambiente reportadas por los sujetos, y algunas variables demográficas. De acuerdo con tres modelos de regresión múltiple, la percepción de riesgos ambientales parece desembocar en conductas de cuidado del ambiente, lo cual no sucede con la percepción de riesgos sociales y personales. En los tres casos, se encontró que las personas de mayor edad y con ingresos económicos más bajos perciben un mayor riesgo ambiental, social y personal. Se analizan estos resultados en el marco de posibles estrategias de prevención y afrontamiento de riesgos para el ambiente, la sociedad y los individuos en particular.