Examining the Relationships between Factors Influencing Environmental Behaviour among University Students

Abstract

Education for sustainability may be seen as consisting of four dimensions: sensitivity and attitudes toward the environment, awareness and knowledge of the environment, environmentally friendly actions and participation. A questionnaire was drawn up which includes statements concerning all these dimensions and it was filled out by 674 university students from different majors. Data were analysed statistically and a structural equation model was formed. Results indicate that sensitivity toward or awareness of nature is the basis for the enjoyment of nature. The enjoyment of nature is directly positively related to the intention of support pro-environmental activity and to environmental knowledge. Furthermore, it has a mediational effect on ecological knowledge, concern, or the belief of human dominance over nature. Students who possess global concerns do not accept human dominance and this is related to the intent to support environmental activities. Students were found to form groups: “Sorters.” “Occasional actors” and “Resource savers.” Compared to prior research, due to the additional items concerning environmental sensitivity and awareness in our instrument, we were able to uncover the importance of sensitivity to the enjoyment of nature in the complex model of the relationships between awareness, attitudes, knowledge, concerns and intentions. Ecological knowledge leads to global concerns and, therefore, it should be promoted through science education.

Roles of Environmental System Knowledge in Promoting University Students’ Environmental Attitudes and Pro-Environmental Behaviors

“…Students could take an important role in bringing sustainability to the society by participating in both types of PEBs. Formal environmental education, such as providing environmental courses, has been used as one of important channels to educate students with environmental values and significance of environmental conservation and protection in order to promote environmental citizenship among university students [2,3]. The study of Pizmony-Levy & Michel [4] found that learning about environmentalism and sustainable issues in class and being a member of campus-based environmental groups could promote student's participation in PEBs.…”

Who is more likely to influence others? A value-based approach to pro-environmental social influence behavior (Preprint)

“…In addition, as concerns with saving resources (e.g., saving energy) have been found to differ for students following different majors (Kukkonen et al, 2018), and in our study participants were asked about household energy conservation, there could also be differences related to this specific type of environmental action. Furthermore, age and gender are known to predict pro-environmental behaviors and environmental attitudes (Blankenberg & Alhusen, 2018;Wachholz, Artz, & Chene, 2014).…”

“…This makes the findings less generalizable, as the results might be dissimilar for student populations with different majors, or age and gender distributions. Students majoring in psychology have been reported to differ significantly from other students regarding their environmental attitudes (Arnocky & Stroink, 2011;Isildar & Yildirim, 2008;Kukkonen, Kärkkäinen, & Keinonen, 2018;Lang, 2011).…”

Environmental Concerns of Russian Businesses: Top Company Missions and Climate Change Agenda

“…Climate change is of utmost importance to modern society [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], and pro-environmental behavior, including climate-friendly actions, can be regarded as an efficient approach to address this challenge [8][9][10][11][12][13]. This behavior can be demonstrated by the general public [14][15][16][17][18], selected groups such as students [19][20][21][22][23], decision-makers [24][25][26][27], and business leaders [28][29][30][31][32][33].…”