Determinants of pro-environmental behavior among excessive smartphone usage children and moderate smartphone usage children in Taiwan

Abstract

Background: Although there are evidences linking the relationships between smartphone usage with health, stress, and academic performance; however, there is still inadequate knowledge about the influence on proenvironmental behaviors. This study seeks to bridge this gap by adapting the theory of attribution framework to examine the effects of personal norms, social norms, perceived behavioral control on pro-environmental behavior of smartphone usage in children. Methods:A total of 225 children aged between 11 to 12 from eight selected public primary schools at the Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park in Taiwan were surveyed. Two distinct groups (excessive versus moderate usage) were purposefully selected for comparison, and of which 96 (42.7%) participants were regarded as excessive smartphone users while the remaining 129 (57.3%) were moderate smartphone users.Results: Findings revealed significant differences between excessive smartphone usage children and moderate smartphone usage children in personal norms (p < 0.001), social norms (p = 0.002), perceived behavioral control (p = 0.001), and pro-environmental behavior (p = 0.001), where moderate smartphone usage children's responses were considerably higher than those of excessive smartphone usage children. Path analysis suggested that the two smartphone usage groups had different pro-environmental behavior paths. For excessive smartphone usage children, findings showed that social norms (β = 0.428, t = 4.096***, p <0.001) had a direct predictive impact on pro-environmental behavior. In contrast, while there was no direct path established between personal norms and pro-environmental behavior (β = 0.177, t = 1.580, p > 0.05), as well as social norms and pro-environmental behavior for moderate smartphone usage children (β = 0.181, t = 1.924, p >0.05), but such a relationship could be developed through the mediating effect of perceived behavioral control (β = 0.497, t = 4.471***, p < 0.001). Conclusions:In conclusion, findings suggested that excessive smartphone usage children lack positive perceived behavioral control, and their pro-environmental behavior could only be predicted through explicit social norms. Whereas, pro-environmental behavior of moderate smartphone usage children were implicitly influenced by personal norms through perceived behavioral control. BackgroundNowadays, smartphones are becoming increasingly popular that have brought many changes to our day-to-day lives, particularly with the ease of access to a vast variety of mobile applications for the purpose of internet