Solidarity With Planet Earth: Predictors of Pro-Environmental Behavior Among Adolescents and Young Adults.

INTRODUCTION

Conceptualizing pro-environmental behavior (PEB) as solidarity with planet Earth and as a socio-ecological dilemma, it is argued that PEB results when humans prioritize positive long-term consequences for the entire planet over positive short-term individual gains. Therefore, it was tested whether four socio-cognitive competencies taken from the model of helping behavior predict PEB and whether these associations differ between adolescents and young adults.

METHODS

In total, 164 adolescents (M = 16.14, SD = 0.98) and 156 young adults (M = 21.89, SD = 2.13) participated. PEB was measured with a newly developed scale, while the four socio-cognitive competencies (1) noticing climate change, (2) interpreting climate change as emergency, (3) feeling personally responsible to act, and (4) knowing what to do were operationalized with single items or short scales. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), independent t-Tests, latent mean comparisons, and multiple group structural equation models (SEM) were performed.

RESULTS

Young adults showed higher levels of PEB compared to adolescents. The model of helping behavior explained 58% of the variance in the whole sample and 60% versus 49% of the variance among adolescents versus young adults. Among adolescents, noticing climate change and knowing what to do against climate change were significant predictors of PEB, while among young adults, all four socio-cognitive competencies were significantly associated with PEB. Comparisons of simple slope differences revealed that knowing what to do was a stronger predictor for adolescents compared to young adults.

CONCLUSIONS

PEB is indeed helping behavior in the ecological domain. Educational approaches focussing on knowledge how to protect the climate could be most beneficial.