Search Results (1,160)

Background: Climate change and related environmental issues are among the major global threats affecting health systems. While nurses’ eco-friendly behaviors are critical for reducing the environmental impact of health care services, the psychological mechanisms through which these behaviors influence carbon footprint awareness have not been sufficiently explained. Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of nurses’ eco-friendly behaviors on carbon footprint awareness and to assess the mediating role of climate change anxiety in this relationship. Methods: The study was conducted using a cross-sectional and analytical design. The sample consisted of 386 nurses selected through convenience sampling based on voluntary participation from among nurses working in secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in Turkey. Results: It was determined that environmentally friendly behavior significantly and positively predicted carbon footprint awareness (B = 0.542, p < 0.001) and climate change anxiety (B = 0.602, p < 0.001). In addition, climate change anxiety was found to have a significant positive effect on carbon footprint awareness (B = 0.458, p < 0.001). Bootstrap analysis showed that climate change anxiety played a significant partial mediating role in the effect of eco-friendly behavior on carbon footprint awareness (indirect effect = 0.176, 95% CI = 0.165–0.369). Conclusions: Nurses’ eco-friendly behaviors increase carbon footprint awareness both directly and through climate change anxiety. The findings highlight the importance of practices that support eco-friendly behaviors and educational programs that strengthen climate change awareness in the development of sustainable health services. Full article

This study examined climate-friendly dietary behavior among young consumers by linking dietary greenhouse gas footprints with environmental awareness and food-consumption practices. Primary data were collected from 400 undergraduate students at Bursa Uludağ University, Türkiye, in 2025. Dietary greenhouse gas footprints were estimated using reported food-consumption quantities and emission coefficients from the literature. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, analysis of variance, correlation analysis, reliability analysis, and multiple regression models with HC3 heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors were employed. The mean daily greenhouse gas footprint of the five assessed food groups was 5.14 kg CO₂-eq per capita, with red meat contributing the largest share. Male students had significantly higher dietary footprints than female students. Environmental awareness was measured using an 11-item composite scale with acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.754). Female students reported significantly higher awareness scores than male students (3.07 ± 0.53 vs. 2.89 ± 0.50, p < 0.001), whereas differences across age groups were not statistically significant (p = 0.141). In the adjusted regression model, environmental awareness (B = 0.758, p = 0.015) and male gender (B = 1.516, p < 0.001) were positively associated with dietary greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting a possible awareness–behavior gap among young consumers. Full article

Zero-sum beliefs about the nature–human relationship (ZSB-NH) conceptualise environmental protection and human wellbeing as inherently conflicting and have been shown to reduce pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). However, the psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship remain poorly understood. The present study examined whether empathy for humans and empathy for nature mediate the relationship between ZSB-NH and PEB. Australian adults (N = 943) completed measures of ZSB-NH, human-directed empathy, nature-directed empathy, and PEB. Parallel mediation analyses showed that ZSB-NH negatively predicted both empathy for humans and empathy for nature, which, in turn, positively predicted PEB. Both forms of empathy significantly and partially mediated the relationship between ZSB-NH and PEB, with neither indirect effect differing significantly in magnitude. When empathy was examined at the facet level, ZSB-NH negatively predicted all dimensions of human and nature empathy; however, only taking a human perspective uniquely mediated the relationship with PEB, possibly due to multicollinearity present between the nature empathy subscales. The direct effect of ZSB-NH remained significant, indicating partial mediation. These findings suggest that zero-sum beliefs may inhibit pro-environmental behaviour partly by reducing empathy, particularly cognitive perspective taking, while also highlighting that additional mechanisms contribute to this relationship. Interventions that foster perspective taking and directly challenge zero-sum beliefs may therefore promote greater engagement in pro-environmental behaviour. Full article

Carbon inclusivity (CI) mechanisms face weak low-carbon adoption despite strong consumer intention in China. Prior studies explain low-carbon behavior mainly from individual psychological perspectives yet rarely investigate the intention–behavior gap in the digital–physical scenarios of CI mechanisms. Furthermore, single theoretical lenses such as the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) framework or Social Practice Theory (SPT) have clear limitations in interpreting this gap. This study integrates the MOA framework with SPT to construct a novel “Motivation–Intention–Context–Practice–Behavior” (MICPB) model, framing behavioral change as a dynamic interplay of internal motivation, external opportunities, and evolving social practices. Different from studies adopting MOA or SPT in isolation, the MICPB model bridges individual psychological processes and routine social practices to unpack the intention–behavior gap. Adopting grounded theory to analyze 42 interviews from China’s CI pilot regions, we identify three core dimensions of the gap: limited internal competencies and emotional conflicts, fragmented external incentives and platform defects, and misalignment between low-carbon values and daily routines. The MICPB model reveals that the gap stems from misalignment across motivation, context and practice, and enriches MOA theory by incorporating practice-based dynamics. This integrated framework deepens understandings of barriers to consumer low-carbon participation under CI schemes. This study suggests coordinated policy and corporate efforts to restructure social practices, bridge the intention–behavior gap, and align digital governance with low-carbon transitions. Full article

Climate adaptation depends not only on infrastructure and governance but also on the adaptive capacity of populations, whose psychological correlates are rarely quantified at a national scale. This study tests an integrative model in which environmental identity is associated with psychological adaptation to climate change directly and indirectly through perceived nature restorativeness, a perceptual indicator of a cultural ecosystem service, and negative eco-emotions. Data were obtained from a nationally representative cross-sectional sample of Greek adults (n = 552; stratified systematic random sampling) and analysed with covariance-based structural equation modelling. Environmental identity was positively associated with perceived restorativeness (β = 0.606, p < 0.001), psychological adaptation (β = 0.354, p < 0.001) and eco-emotions (β = 0.211, p = 0.001). Perceived restorativeness was positively related to negative eco-emotions (β = 0.128, p = 0.031), which were in turn associated with adaptation (β = 0.237, p < 0.001); no direct restorativeness–adaptation path was supported. The model explained 36.7%, 23.0% and 9.3% of the variance in restorativeness, adaptation and eco-emotions. These population-level estimates offer baseline social indicators for monitoring adaptive capacity, and identify access to restorative green and blue space and climate-aware mental health services as candidate priorities for the social dimension of sustainable development under SDG 3, 11 and 13. Full article

Environmental degradation is no longer a distant threat; it now permeates social media feeds, casual conversations, and daily digital content. However, whether incidental exposure to environmental news leads to meaningful behavioral change remains poorly understood. This study examines how incidental environmental news exposure (IENE) relates to pro-environmental behavior (PEB) among Chinese social media users, with particular attention to the sequential chain-mediating roles of environmental belief (EB) and perceived environmental risk (PER). A theoretical model was developed and tested using survey data from 468 respondents collected in November and December 2024, and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicate that IENE is significantly and positively associated with EB, PER, and PEB. Notably, EB was not directly associated with PEB; its association operated almost entirely through PER, which accounted for 87.6% of the total EB–PEB association. PER emerged as the principal psychological pathway linking passive news exposure to behavioral engagement, and the structural model explained 42.1% of the variance in PEB. Because the design is cross-sectional, the results establish covariance patterns consistent with the proposed sequence rather than temporal or causal order. These findings indicate that cognitive risk appraisal, rather than environmental belief alone, constitutes the proximal mediating mechanism within the modelled pathway to pro-environmental action. Policymakers and media practitioners should accordingly design communication strategies that extend beyond general awareness-raising to link environmental threats explicitly to perceived personal and societal risk. Full article

We conducted an exploratory evaluation of short-term changes following participation in a two-day intensive training programme aimed at addressing sustainability-oriented and project-management-related psychological outcomes, focusing on self-efficacy and behavioral intentions among university staff and researchers. A repeated-measures pre-post design was adopted. A total of 28 participants took part in the training, which covered the fundamentals of project management (including its main phases and processes) and the integration of sustainability principles into project management practices. Participants were assessed at two time points: prior to the training (T1) and immediately after its completion (T2). Primary outcomes included project sustainability self-efficacy, project management self-efficacy, pro-sustainability behavioral intentions, and behavioral intentions to adopt new project management practices. Cognitive fatigue and perceived training utility were assessed at T2 to capture participants’ immediate post-training experiences. Changes over time were examined using paired-samples t-tests and regression models controlling for baseline (T1) levels of each outcome variable. Participants showed significant increases from T1 to T2 across all outcome variables, with a moderate effect for project sustainability self-efficacy (Cohen’s d = 0.42) and large to very large effects for project management self-efficacy (d = 1.35), pro-sustainability behavioral intentions (d = 2.08), and behavioral intentions to adopt new project management practices (d = 1.38). Baseline levels generally predicted post-training scores, suggesting partial temporal stability, whereas perceived training utility showed weak and non-significant associations with post-training outcomes. Cognitive fatigue did not emerge as a significant predictor of any outcome. Overall, these exploratory findings provide preliminary evidence of short-term changes observed following participation in the training programme in sustainability- and project-management-related psychological outcomes. However, given the small convenience sample, single-group pre-post design, and immediate post-training assessment, the findings should be interpreted cautiously and do not allow causal conclusions regarding the effects of the training programme. Larger controlled and longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether these changes can be replicated and sustained over time. Full article

This study conducts a meta-analytical evaluation of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework predicting pro-environmental intentions. Although widely employed in this area, doubts have been raised about the reliability and applicability of this theory beyond particular settings. To conduct an objective analysis, a comprehensive systematic review in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 recommendations was carried out, after which a random-effects meta-analysis was performed to assess the strength of connections between attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and pro-environmental intention. It can be concluded that all three factors have a significant positive impact on pro-environmental intentions. Attitude turned out to be the best predictor, while PBC and subjective norm came second and third respectively. However, there is notable heterogeneity (I² > 92%), meaning that primary studies showed large disparities in effect sizes. This proves that, although TPB is empirically relevant, it cannot be considered a consistently predictive theory. Full article

Grounded in an integrated conceptual framework combining the Cognitive–Affective–Conative model, Social Cognitive Theory, and the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study examines the direct and indirect pathways through which environmental awareness translates into eco-socially responsible behavior among Jordanians. Data on socio-demographic characteristics and eight environmental constructs were collected through a telephone survey of 417 Jordanian adults. Path analysis confirmed that environmental awareness had a significant positive effect on eco-socially responsible behavior, with a total effect of β = 0.347 (p < 0.001), combining a direct effect (β = 0.250) and indirect effects (β = 0.097) operating through attitudes and behavioral intention. PBC and behavioral intention emerged as the most proximate determinants of behavior. Behavioral intention functioned as one of the key mediating pathways through which awareness, attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy converged before reaching behavior. Place of residence significantly moderated the awareness–behavior relationship, with urban residents showing a stronger association than rural ones, pointing to the role of structural enabling conditions in shaping sustainable behavior. These findings have implications for sustainability-oriented environmental programming in Jordan and similar resource-constrained contexts in the MENA region, calling for multi-pronged approaches that move beyond awareness-raising to address the psychological and structural intermediaries shaping eco-socially responsible behavior. Full article

The increasing environmental impact of the textile industry has heightened interest in sustainable consumption practices, particularly second-hand clothing consumption. However, instruments assessing attitudes toward second-hand clothing remain limited. This study aimed to develop a scale to assess university students’ perceptions, sustainability orientations, values, and attitudes toward second-hand clothing consumption and to provide evidence of its psychometric properties. An initial pool of 45 items was generated through a literature review and focus group interviews with students from 14 universities representing different geographical regions of Türkiye. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using data from 244 university students. After removing nine items, a 36-item, eight-factor structure accounted for 66.43% of the total variance. The factors were labeled Saving, Fashion, Social Interaction, Spiritual Well-Being, Brand Orientation, Sustainability, Trust, and Nostalgia. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) performed on an independent sample supported the proposed structure and demonstrated an acceptable model fit (χ²/df = 2.16; CFI = 0.854; TLI = 0.838; RMSEA = 0.069; SRMR = 0.074). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.712 to 0.913. Overall, the findings indicate that the proposed scale demonstrates acceptable psychometric properties and has the potential to assess university students’ attitudes toward second-hand clothing consumption in future research. Full article

Given the increasingly prominent environmental issues that adversely affect global sustainable development, this study, grounded in situated cognition theory and social cognition theory, constructs a moderated serial mediation model to investigate the mechanisms and boundary conditions through which environmental education influences higher education students’ ecological behavior. Based on a survey and analysis of 3961 higher education students, the findings reveal that (1) theoretical education and practical education exert significantly different pathways to ecological behavior, with practical education demonstrating a significant positive direct behavioral driving force, whereas the direct effect of theoretical education is not significant and operates mainly through indirect psychological transmission; (2) ecological values and ecological cognition serve as serial mediators between environmental education and ecological behavior; (3) the degree of theory-practice transformation positively moderates the relationship between practical education and ecological cognition, while ecological action competence positively moderates the relationship between ecological cognition and ecological behavior. The results indicate that while strengthening students’ environmental education, universities should also focus on cultivating their ecological action competence—the key competence that transforms ecological cognition into actual behavior—and strive to enhance the teaching effectiveness of transforming theoretical education into practical experience. Full article

The growing availability of large-scale online data has created new opportunities for analysing public discourse on climate change, although the reconstruction of structured social representations within digital environments remains methodologically challenging. This study proposes a computational framework for adapting the Hierarchical Evocation Method (HEM), grounded in Social Representation Theory, to large-scale social media discourse. Using a continuously updated Reddit dataset on climate change, the approach combines theory-informed lexical anchoring with data-driven semantic expansion to construct a renewable energy subcorpus comprising 91,817 comments published between 2018 and 2026. Representational structures are reconstructed through user-level lexical diffusion, positional salience, rhetorical foregrounding, and co-occurrence analysis, enabling the identification of central, peripheral, and contrastive components within online discourse. The results reveal a relatively stabilised representational core centred on climate transition, fossil dependency, renewable infrastructures, and socio-economic transformation, while peripheral zones display greater contextual variability and evaluative fragmentation. Longitudinal analyses further suggest a progressive consolidation of renewable energy discourse despite high user turnover and sustained growth in participation. The framework additionally highlights the relevance of affective and interactional dimensions, particularly through the widespread use of ironic and sceptical emoji configurations. Methodologically, the study provides a transparent and reproducible computational pipeline that extends classical evocation-based approaches to large-scale, dynamic corpora. More broadly, the findings contribute to sustainability communication research by showing how renewable energy is collectively framed and negotiated within English Reddit-based digital discussions. Full article

Given the growing impact of the climate crisis on mental health, it is necessary to explore the domain of eco-emotions, the affective responses to environmental change. In keeping with this, the present exploratory study aimed to investigate the association between Digital Life Balance (DLB) and eco-emotions, while also examining whether Readiness to Change (RtC) dimensions were involved in possible indirect associations within exploratory cross-sectional statistical mediation models. Data were collected through the use of an anonymous online survey, and the final sample consisted of 257 participants (59.9% cisgender women; 39.3% cisgender men; 0.8% people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community; mean age = 32.99, SD = 14.640). From a methodological perspective, correlation analysis, MANOVA and exploratory cross-sectional statistical mediation models were performed. The results showed small positive correlations between DLB and eco-emotions in terms of anger, isolation, anxiety, and sorrow. Exploratory statistical mediation models suggested possible uncorrected indirect associations involving perceived importance of the environmental problem (PI; RtC). However, these specific indirect associations did not remain significant after Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple testing. Accordingly, the findings should be interpreted as small, preliminary, unadjusted cross-sectional associations between subjective online–offline balance, selected eco-emotions, and sustainability-related psychological readiness. In conclusion, this work provides an initial basis for future longitudinal and covariate-adjusted studies examining how subjective digital–offline balance may be linked to eco-emotional experiences and sustainability-related psychological readiness. Full article

Risk perception and value assessment are key drivers of purchase intention. However, the literature lacks a consensus on how and when risk perception and perceived value impact consumers’ purchase intention, and their relationship remains unclear. To solve this gap, mechanisms of consumer purchase intentions must be elucidated. We conducted a systematic meta-analysis to examine the relationships and factors moderating it, and used meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) to reveal the mechanism and boundaries. Forty-four studies (N = 21,370) were included to examine how risk perception and perceived value impact consumer purchase intention, showing that consumer purchase intention is affected positively by perceived value and negatively by risk perception. Risk perception and perceived value exhibit mutual interaction effects. Perceived value has a stronger relationship with consumer purchase intention than risk perception. In the moderator’s analysis, the effects of perceived value on consumers’ risk perception and of perceived risk on perceived value and purchase intention are stronger when consumers come from developing (vs. developed) countries. Impacts of perceived value on consumer purchase intention and risk perception and of risk perception on perceived value and purchase intention are stronger when consumers are non-students (vs. students). When analyzing the three models’ mechanisms of action, Model 1 better explained consumer intention’s boundaries and impact mechanisms. To our knowledge, this is the first meta-analytic study summarizing how risk perception and perceived value impact consumers’ purchase intention, revealing the mechanism and boundaries of consumer behavior and illuminating a forward-looking new perspective outlining research directions. Full article

Aquatic recreation significantly enhances well-being; however, individuals experiencing functional limitations remain frequently marginalized from this form of tourism due to infrastructural and environmental barriers. This study investigates the perceived operational risks and apprehensions encountered by users with specific accessibility needs during yacht sailing, aiming to inform inclusive vessel design aligned with the social dimension of sustainable development. A survey of 277 participants with diverse, officially certified functional limitations was conducted to evaluate their maritime experiences and safety concerns. Participants identified a mean of 11 pre-voyage apprehensions out of 19 distinct risk categories. The most prevalent concerns included stumbling, slipping, or falling on board (79%), the risk of falling overboard (73%), and seasickness (70%), with an overall moderate severity ($\overline{X}$ = 2.2 on a 4-point scale). Crucially, severe safety concerns (e.g., vessel sinking or falling overboard) were significantly mitigated following practical sailing experience. Conversely, everyday functional and ergonomic challenges—such as moving between the deck and crew quarters ($\overline{X}$ = 2.6), operating rigging ($\overline{X}$ = 2.7), embarkation ($\overline{X}$ = 2.6), and utilizing sanitary facilities ($\overline{X}$ = 2.1)—persisted irrespective of experience level. Statistical analysis revealed that gender and age had negligible effects on concern levels. Extensive maritime experience reduced apprehensions regarding balance and swimming competencies, while concurrently increasing awareness of communication and comfort-related operational challenges. This study highlights a distinct divergence between initial psychological anxiety—which is largely mitigated by experience—and persistent architectural barriers inherent in standard yacht design. The results underscore that achieving meaningful inclusivity in water tourism requires prioritizing interior spatial layouts, accessible sanitary facilities, and barrier-free vertical circulation in naval architecture, rather than focusing exclusively on emergency safety systems. These insights directly support the advancement of Sustainable Development Goal 10 and the integration of universal and human-centered design principles within the maritime recreation sector. Full article