The Theory of Reasoned Action as a predictor of environmental behavior: A cross-cultural comparison between college students from Texas, Louisiana, and Honduras

Environmental and ecological degradation has raised concerns worldwide. Negative attitudes toward the environment plus disinterest have led to improper behavior, influencing climate change and global warming. Awareness could have a positive environmental impact by influencing attitudes and behaviors...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of human behavior in the social environment Vol. 33; no. 4; pp. 521 - 536
Main Authors Lamiño Jaramillo, Pablo, Tábora-Sarmiento, Shisbeth, Millares-Forno, Carla, Boren-Alpízar, Amy E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 19.05.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Attitudes
Behavior
Behavior change
Behavior modification
Climate change
College students
Colleges & universities
Cross cultural studies
Cultural differences
Degradation
Environmental attitudes
environmental behavior
Environmental behaviour
environmental education
Environmental protection
Global warming
Multivariate analysis
Norms
Reasoned action theory
Student attitudes
Undergraduate students
Variance analysis
Louisiana
Honduras
United States > US
Texas
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Summary:Environmental and ecological degradation has raised concerns worldwide. Negative attitudes toward the environment plus disinterest have led to improper behavior, influencing climate change and global warming. Awareness could have a positive environmental impact by influencing attitudes and behaviors. One way to generate awareness and ensure positive behavior is through education. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), a 33-questions survey was implemented to college students from Texas, Louisiana, and Honduras to (1) compare students' environmental attitudes, behaviors, and subjective norms at the three universities; and (2) predict how much of the undergraduate students' environmental behavior variance could be explained by their environmental attitude, subjective norms, and perceived environmental knowledge. Multivariate analysis of variance and hierarchical regressions were performed to address the objectives, respectively. Results showed that Honduras and Louisiana students' environmental attitudes, behavior, and subjective norms are significantly different than Texas students, and TRA variables increased the prediction of behavior variance by 15%. Understanding interactions between behavior, attitude, knowledge, and subjective norms among college students from different universities may help assess environmental interventions and design successful programs based on group needs.
ISSN:1091-1359
1540-3556
DOI:10.1080/10911359.2022.2072040