Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Relationship With Nature Visits, Connectedness to Nature and Physical Activity

Abstract

Purpose Examine the association of visits to the natural environment, connectedness to nature, physical activity, and the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in individuals aged 18 years or older. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting City of Vila Real, located in the north of Portugal. Subjects We recruited 194 individuals (61 men and 133 women) aged 18-75 years. Mesures A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure nature visits, connectedness to nature, PEBs, and demographic characteristics. Neighborhood green space was appreciated through a Simplified Land Occupation Map and physical activity was measured using ActiGraph accelerometers (wGT3X-BT). Analysis Correlations and nonlinear canonical correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. The coefficients of canonical and multiple correlations were calculated. Results Nature visits were associated with involvement in environmental volunteering (V = .317, P ≤ .05) among men. In these, higher levels of moderate-vigorous PA were associated with green travel behavior (η2 = .325, P ≤ .05). Connectedness with nature was related (P ≤ .05) to private sphere behaviors, such as purchase of eco-products (η2 = .191) and local/seasonal products (η2 = .186) in females and encouraging care and protection of natural environment (η2 = .336, P ≤ .01) in males. Conclusions Nature visits, connection to nature, and physical activity levels were related to the adoption of PEBs in the private and public sphere, and these relationships differed between men and women.

Recognizing the impact of value-belief-norm theory on pro-environmental behaviors of higher education students: considering aspects for social-marketing applications

“…Consensus in prior (Song et al , 2022) and the current research show that education is a significant means for citizens to attain the right approaches for environment conservation; to impose positive impacts or reduce negative impacts on the ecosystem. Hence, international institutions and intergovernmental organizations (union of nations) have advocated higher education to address environmental matters in their marketing initiatives and strategies, whether their lectures, research projects and campus operations so to foster viable ecological outlooks and norms (Dietz et al , 2020); universities are the forefront of sustainability by: “virtue of their institutional mission, technological capacity, and base” (Cameron et al , 2016, p. 2) to avoid further environment deterioration (Teixeira et al , 2023). This study’s findings hold implications for higher education policies designed to promote pro-environmental behavior, and for social science research aimed at understanding the triggers of pro-behavior responses and changes to greener environment.…”

“…As most environmental problems are caused by people, their behavior changes are mandatory to address climate change and sustainable developments (Dietz et al , 2020). Studies use popular theories to explain pro-environmental behavior among different populations, such as farmers (Wang et al , 2021), consumers (Trautwein et al , 2023), employees (Raza and Khan, 2022), business owners (Kim, 2023), tourists (Teixeira et al , 2023) and students (Mohammadi et al , 2023). These environmental psychology theories are theory of planned behavior (TPB), norm activation model (NAM), protection motivation theory (PMT) and VBN theory.…”

“…VBN theory has received empirical support and proven to be successful in explaining self-reported behavioral intentions and actual behaviors of many people worldwide; studies claim that VBN is significant in triggering pro-environmental behaviors among citizens in America (Choi et al , 2015), Portugal (Teixeira et al , 2023), Malaysia (Fauzi et al , 2022), China (Song et al , 2022) and Azerbaijan (Trautwein et al , 2023). Although VBN theory has been tested in different countries, the question remains whether VBN theory is valid across other countries.…”

“…Progressively, public interests toward environmental behaviors led scholars and practitioners to question the key factors that should be promoted so as to trigger environmentally friendly actions (Teixeira et al , 2023). Many studies show that students’ personal factors are the base of motivating sustainable behaviors, and a predictor of ecological behaviors (Shafiei and Maleksaeidi, 2020).…”

“…Many pro-environmental behaviors exist that can be promoted and taught in higher education institutions to allow students to achieve their universalistic values and minimize environmental harm or restore the natural environment; these behaviors can be carried out by individuals in their private domain (recycling, green purchase, saving water and energy) or in their public domain (joining environmental groups) (Teixeira et al , 2023). Yet, researches have examined limited types of pro-environmental behavior, and have not explored the bundle dimensions that constitute sustainable behaviors (Ghazali et al , 2019).…”