The Impact of Environmental Education on College Students’ Low-carbon Behaviour: A Chain Mediation Model Moderated by Prosocial Behaviour
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Low-carbon behaviour is a crucial pathway to addressing current climate change and promoting sustainable economic and social development. The importance of environmental education has become a widely recognised consensus among higher education institutions. However, the mechanisms through which environmental education influences the low-carbon behaviour of the new generation of college students remain insufficiently explored. This study introduces environmental attitude and green perceived value as mediators, while prosocial behaviour is a moderator. A moderated chain mediation model is developed from new perspectives of psychological, social and environmental values, and this theoretical model is empirically tested using 759 college students in China surveyed by a questionnaire. The findings reveal that environmental education positively drives college students’ low-carbon behaviour, with environmental attitude and green perceived value playing a partial chain mediation role between environmental education and low-carbon behaviour. Additionally, prosocial behaviour positively moderates the relationships between environmental attitude, green perceived value and college students’ low-carbon behaviour, significantly moderating the mediating effect of green perceived value.
Authors: Maobao Yang, Gaofei Ren, Lei Guo
Institution: Jiujiang University
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
OpenAlex ID: W4414412626