Differentiated Impact of Politics- and Science-Oriented Education on Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Case Study of Chinese University Students

Ran Wang, Tiantian Jia, Rui Qi, Jinhua Cheng, Kang Zhang, Erwei Wang and Xi Wang
Additional contact information
Ran Wang: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Tiantian Jia: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Rui Qi: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Jinhua Cheng: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Kang Zhang: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Erwei Wang: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Xi Wang: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to understand the differentiated impact of politics- and science-oriented education on pro-environmental behavior among university students. A questionnaire was designed and sent to more than 14,000 university students from 152 universities in China using the snowball sampling method. In the questionnaire, the environmental knowledge was divided innovatively into two parts: Science-oriented knowledge spread by traditional environmental education and politics-oriented knowledge spread through political education. The structural equation model was used to understand the conduction path of pro-environmental knowledge, attitude, and behavior. It shows that politics-oriented knowledge has a quicker and stronger effect on improving behavior than science-oriented knowledge. Moreover, there is a significant positive correlation between science- and politics-oriented knowledge. However, the attitude is positively influenced by science-oriented knowledge, instead of politics-oriented knowledge. It suggests that traditional environmental education and political education should be integrated to promote the pro-environmental behavior of university students indirectly and directly, which may provide an opportunity for pro-environmental political education in other countries. The study contributes important theoretical and practical implications for environmental education and sustainable development.

Keywords: environmental politics; education; science-oriented knowledge; politics-oriented knowledge; structural equation model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/616/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/616/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:616-:d:478137

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().