The Predictive Effects of Protection Motivation Theory on Adaptive Behaviour Towards Urban Air Quality

Abstract

In urban areas, the rigid division of residential, commercial, employment and recreational areas forms a reliance on road transport, which leads to high levels of emission that gradually affects the quality of the urban environment. We establish the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) as a framework for explaining adaptive behavioural responses among urban communities in Malaysia. Participants (N = 450) answered to face-to-face questionnaire survey, and the results specify establishment for the proposed model, with perceived vulnerability (H1) (ß = 0.246, t = 4.534, P=0.000) and and self-efficacy (H3) (ß = 0.510, t = 9.653, P=0.000) positively predicting adaptive behaviour on urban air pollution. The results presented that these structures were able to predict 47% of the variance of adaptive behaviour. The study establishes a significant contribution to the literature by contributing an indication of PMT as an ideal framework for adaptive behavioural responses on urban air pollution.

Do perception factors affect adaptation behaviours against air pollution among vulnerable occupation groups? evidence from chittagong and dehradun

“…However, a similar study done in the context of air pollution with the residents of an urban centre in Malaysia find that perceived severity and response efficacy does not have a statistically significant relationship towards adaptive behaviour. (Sahrir 2019). As there is a dearth of studies that have explored this relationship among vulnerable groups in the air pollution context, there aren't comparable studies.…”

“…First, SEM is well recognized among social science researchers as many concepts can be measured mainly through latent variables and observed indicators (Hair et al 2017(Hair et al , 2019. Second, SEM is more powerful than factor analysis, path analysis, or multiple regression when done for similar studies assessing adaptation behaviours (Hansstein and Echegaray 2018, Sahrir 2019, Xue et al 2021. Finally, SEM gives a complete picture of the entire model regardless of the complexity of the relationships and can accommodate several explanatory constructs.…”

Adapting Theories of Pro-environmental Behaviours to Environmental Activism: A Review of Relevant Theoretical Frameworks

“…Finally, there is a paucity of coherent findings on the PMT constructs associated with and found to contribute to pro-environmental behaviour. The PMT has recently been applied to pro-environmental behaviours by researchers (e.g., Akhtar et al, 2020;Kothe et al, 2019;Shafiei & Maleksaeidi, 2020;Sahrir et al, 2019).…”