Understanding the Influence of Initial Values of College Students in Shaping Pro-Environmental Behavioral Intention

Abstract

Pro-environmental behaviors are rooted in values, and understanding the initial values among college students is pivotal in developing educational strategies to improve their pro-environmental behavior. However, most pro-environmental behavior studies fail to consider the social values and personal values as different dimensional or even conflicting values. This study integrated two distinct values, namely perceived social values and perceived personal values, with the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine how different values shape college students’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions. The proposed model was then empirically validated using survey data from 245 responses from freshmen students at a University in Chongqing. The findings reveal that while perceived social values and perceived personal values are both positively related to behavioral intention, the effect sizes of the former are much larger. Our findings highlight that higher institutions and instructors should continue shaping the prosocial values among college students and create personal values from pro-environmental behavior to reduce the detrimental impact on the environment and achieve sustainability.

Hikers’ pro-environmental behavior in national park: Integrating theory of planned behavior and norm activation theory

“…The following theoretical additions to the existing literature are illustrated by this investigation. Firstly, the study found that both the TPB and NAM models demonstrate significant explaining capacity on hikers' PEB in the protected areas, which further validates the findings of previous studies PEB (Han, 2015(Han, , 2021Alzubaidi et al, 2021;Aziz et al, 2021;Singh and Kaur, 2021;Cao et al, 2022;Kang, 2022;Long et al, 2022;Song et al, 2022;Zheng et al, 2022). Therefore, it is demonstrated that integrating TPB and NAM models is useful and effective for examining hikers' PEB in the protected areas and for understanding more fully the influence mechanism underlying such behavior.…”

“…First, the results revealed that both the TPB model and NAM model displayed explanatory capacity on hikers' PEB in Wuyishan National Park in China. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have regularly evaluated the suitability of utilizing TPB or NAM models to explain PEB (Han, 2015(Han, , 2021Alzubaidi et al, 2021;Aziz et al, 2021;Singh and Kaur, 2021;Cao et al, 2022;Kang, 2022;Long et al, 2022;Song et al, 2022;Zheng et al, 2022).…”

“…To achieve a more sustainable society, encouraging hikers to participate in a variety of PEB can subsequently increase favorable environmental outcomes and lessen the severity of global environmental challenges (Goh, 2020;Udall et al, 2020;Choi and Kim, 2021;Esfandiar et al, 2022). Previous studies about PEB have generally focused on personal factors regarding tourists, such as their attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) mechanisms as well as the environmental behavioral intention of theory of planned behavior (TPB) (De Leeuw et al, 2015;Han, 2020;Meng et al, 2020;Yuriev et al, 2020;Alzubaidi et al, 2021;Aziz et al, 2021;Fenitra et al, 2021;Panwanitdumrong and Chen, 2021;Singh and Kaur, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021;Loureiro et al, 2022;Zheng et al, 2022); awareness of consequences (AC), ascription of responsibility (AR), and personal norm (PN) of the norm activation theory (NAM) (Meng et al, 2020;Alzaidi and Iyanna, 2021;Bai and Zhang, 2021;O'Connor and Assaker, 2021;Han et al, 2021;Cao et al, 2022;Jeon et al, 2022;Kang, 2022;Long et al, 2022;Loureiro et al, 2022;Song et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2022). However, there are many influencing factors of personal PEB, and there are complex interrelationships, there are both have direct and indirect effects (Han, 2021).…”

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

“…Research shows that students on campuses that communicate eco-friendly behaviors begin to build pro-environmental values (King, 2016). Many studies have hinted this conclusion (Fern andez et al, 2007;Qazi et al, 2022;Song et al, 2022), finding that older students possess more positive pro-environmental behavior in their final stages of their university years compared to students in earlier years.…”

“…Shafiei and Maleksaeidi (2020) claim that more researches are needed to probe into students' cognitive process of sustainable and pro-environmental values through the lens of psychological theory. Although there has been research on higher education role in sustainability and on basic human values, these two research streams are largely independent (Song et al, 2022), making the merger of these areas needing further study. Stern et al (1999) explain that among the theories that reflect environmental and conservation psychology, value-belief-norm (VBN) provides a more inclusive set of predictors for motivations of pro-environmental behaviors.…”