Abstract Background: Growing global concerns about sustainability highlight the importance of environmental sustainability, particularly environmentally conscious behaviors. There has been a growing focus on pro-environmental behavior (PEB) as a way for individuals to minimize their environmental impact. Global environmental challenges underscore the pressing need for proactive environmental action, particularly the growing emphasis on the importance of motivating individuals' daily actions and choices, as they directly contribute to environmental conservation and pro-environmental behavior. In the context of Sweden, the country is widely recognized for its commitment to environmental sustainability. Moreover, considering the increasing number of international university students in Sweden, it contributes to the academic environment and allows for the exploration of environmental behaviors within a diverse population. Given this, understanding, and promoting pro-environmental behaviors among this demographic in Sweden is essential, and it also helps contribute to the societal commitment to environmental conservation. Purpose: This thesis aims to investigate the determinants that influence pro-environmental behavior among international university students in Sweden, employing social cognitive theory and the reciprocal determinism model. Focusing on personal (internal) factors like environmental knowledge and attitudes as well as environmental (external) factors like subjective norms and place attachment, this thesis also explored the interaction between pro-environmental behavior and its associated factors. By understanding these factors’ roles, this thesis aims to contribute to the development of effective strategies for promoting pro-environmental behavior among this population. Method: This thesis adopts a quantitative approach to examine the interplay of variables via an online survey. Data were collected from 203 individuals in Sweden, focusing on investigating the relationships between different factors and pro-environmental behavior based on eight formulated hypotheses. Respondents were selected using judgmental sampling, and data analysis was conducted using techniques such as Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression analysis in SPSS. Conclusion: The results of this thesis reveal a significant association between different factors and pro-environmental behavior among international university students in Sweden. Specifically, environmental attitude and place attachment were found to positively influence pro-environmental behavior. Moreover, subjective norms were shown to have a positive impact on both environmental knowledge and attitude. However, neither the relationship between place attachment and environmental knowledge nor the relationship between environmental knowledge and subjective norms had any significant impact on pro-environmental behavior.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-64251 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Kim, Soyeon |
| Publisher | Jönköping University, Internationella Handelshögskolan |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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