| Abstract [eng] |
The scope and the seriousness of ecological challenges urge us to identify general factors that could facilitate various pro-environmental behaviors among different people in different contexts. Therefore, the main question of this dissertation was to what extent environmental considerations, namely biospheric values, environmental self-identity and personal norms to engage in pro-environmental behavior are universal in explaining variety of pro-environmental behaviors in a context and sample that was not tested previously, namely in Lithuania and among adolescents. We first demonstrated that environmental self-identity is a theoretically and empirically distinct construct from other constructs representing human-environment relationship, and that it is a valuable target for interventions aimed at promoting many different pro-environmental behaviors. Next, we found that general environmental considerations, namely biospheric values, environmental self-identity and personal norms, can explain various pro- environmental behaviors in Lithuania, despite the fact that people are dealing with various social, demographic and economic issues besides environmental issues. Further, environmental considerations explain many pro-environmental behaviors among adolescents, even though they experience age related peculiarities such as increased susceptiveness to peer influence. In fact, we found that general environmental considerations explain adolescents’ pro-environmental behavior to a similar extent as behavior-specific factors, such as habits or intentions. Finally, we found that parents’ and adolescents’ environmental considerations were strongly related, suggesting that families could potentially be an important basis for shaping individuals’ environmental considerations. Environmental considerations did not explain some pro-environmental behaviors though, both for adults and adolescents, suggesting that there may be important barriers for people to act upon their pro-environmental considerations, which might be characteristic to a country, context or a specific age group. Building on the findings, we proposed two routes to connect people’s environmental considerations and behavior, namely strengthening the environmental considerations and implementing contextual changes to enable people to act upon their environmental considerations. |
