Chen Cai, Shahbaz Pomi, Haq Shamsheer Ul
Sichuan Digital Economy Industry Development Research Institute, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.
Department of Economics, Division of Management and Administrative Science, University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jan 15;15:1499781. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1499781. eCollection 2024.
Environmental education is crucial for achieving ecological sustainability goals and transforming human behavior to promote responsible consumption. Higher education institutions play a fundamental role in transforming societies aimed at a more sustainable future through the dissemination of environmental education to millions of young people worldwide. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the role of environmental education in transforming students' green behavior (SGB), along with other higher education institutional factors such as green campus initiatives (GCI), institutional ecosystem (IEC), institutional sustainability system (ISS), and institutional support system (ISP) through students' green intentions (SGI). The study data were collected from 480 Chinese students enrolled in the four cities with highest number of higher education institutions through face-to-face cross-sectional survey. The collected data were analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings indicate a significant and positive impact of GCI, IEC, ISS, and ISP on SGI, which further positively affects the SGB. This implies that green initiatives at campus, green ecosystems, sustainable and environmentally oriented policies, and support systems of educational institutions greatly contribute to the development of students' green intentions (SGI), which further turn into green habits fostering their green behavior. Moreover, environmental education also played a significant moderating role between SGI and SGB. The provision of support systems, organizing hands-on workshops and seminars, providing sustainable food items at cafeterias, and short campus visits focusing on campus green practices may inspire students to adopt green practices in their daily routines.
环境教育对于实现生态可持续发展目标以及转变人类行为以促进负责任消费至关重要。高等教育机构在通过向全球数百万年轻人传播环境教育来推动社会向更可持续的未来转型方面发挥着基础性作用。因此，本研究旨在通过学生的绿色意愿（SGI）来衡量环境教育在转变学生绿色行为（SGB）方面的作用，以及其他高等教育机构因素，如绿色校园倡议（GCI）、机构生态系统（IEC）、机构可持续发展系统（ISS）和机构支持系统（ISP）。研究数据通过面对面横断面调查收集自中国高等教育机构数量最多并分布于四个城市的480名学生。收集到的数据通过偏最小二乘结构方程模型进行分析。研究结果表明，GCI、IEC、ISS和ISP对SGI有显著的正向影响，进而对SGB产生积极影响。这意味着校园绿色倡议、绿色生态系统、可持续和环保导向的政策以及教育机构的支持系统极大地促进了学生绿色意愿（SGI）的发展，进而转化为培养他们绿色行为的绿色习惯。此外，环境教育在SGI和SGB之间也起到了显著的调节作用。提供支持系统、组织实践工作坊和研讨会、在食堂提供可持续食品以及开展聚焦校园绿色实践的短期校园参观活动，可能会激励学生在日常生活中采用绿色实践。
