Evaluating the Impact of Environmental Education on Ecologically Friendly Behavior of University Students in Pakistan: The Roles of Environmental Responsibility and Islamic Values

Abstract

With increasing global environmental problems, considerable evidence now suggests that environmental education can influence students’ ecologically friendly behavior significantly. Addressing increased environmental problems requires better understanding of the relations between focused and explicit environmental education, environmental responsibility, and religious values. The current study examined the relationship between environmental education and ecologically friendly behavior, utilizing insights from resource conservation theory. The relationship between the variables mentioned above was examined to determine the mediating effect of environmental responsibility and the moderating effect of Islamic values. Through a cross-sectional approach, data were gathered from 413 university students. The data were analyzed using analytical techniques such as “structural equation modeling” and “PROCESS.” The study’s findings support the predicted conceptual model, indicating that environmental education was positively related to environmentally friendly behavior. Furthermore, environmental responsibility partially mediated the relationship above, whereas Islamic values positively moderated the relationships between environmental education and ecologically friendly behavior as well as between environmental education and environmental responsibility. These findings emphasize the critical role of environmental education and Islamic values in comprehending the ecological behaviors of Muslim students.

The Role of Catholic Life Formation in Fostering Sustainable Environmental Attitudes among Selected Filipino SHS Students

“…If the goal of environmental education is to increase knowledge and awareness of environmental issues and needs (Westover 2001), CLF has satisfied this intent. In addition, our study supports a previous finding (Begum et al 2021) citing religious values as an influential factor in the formation of environmental behavior, thus also supporting the Catholic Church's advocacy in promoting environmental awareness in the country.…”

Environmental and Moral Education for Effective Environmentalism: An Ideological and Philosophical Approach

“…Moral and behavioral consciousness regulates different factors that are instrumental in decision making, which include the environment, existing culture, economic status, and intrinsic motivations [ 28 , 29 ]. Developing moral consciousness among people is instrumental in reviewing personal actions such as the consumption of fossil fuels, which is the largest source of environmental degradation and a major contributor to global warming [ 30 , 31 ].…”

“…Moral education also extends to trade, as identified by Ha-Brookshire et al [ 59 ], who said that it helps to train current and future professionals so that they can build sustainable companies and supply chains that cut across the globe. Begum et al [ 31 ] noted that pro-environmental behavior is developed as a result of moral education. Further, moral education leads to a recognition of the common future of mankind, which leads to a global partnership [ 60 ].…”

Social and Religious Influences on Environmentally Ethical Behavior of Muslim Community in Malaysia

“…Therefore, a recent study proposed that the Malaysian government should integrate the element of religion into environmental policies, and major institutions such as education and media should use religion as an element to enhance EEB (Abdullah & Keshminder, 2020). Additionally, another recent study found that Islamic values positively moderated the relationships between environmental education and ecologically friendly behavior, as well as between environmental education and environmental responsibility (Begum et al, 2021). In comparison, the Muslim respondents in Malaysia were more influenced by the social factors than the religious factors.…”