The Impact of Transformative Tourism Experiences on Prosocial Behaviors of College Students: Multiple Chain Mediating Effects of Dispositional Awe and Social Connectedness

Ying Li (), Xuan Wu, Yu-Jie Chu and Ya-Jun Guo
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Ying Li: Department of Tourism Management, Northwest University, Xi’an 710100, China
Xuan Wu: Department of Tourism Management, Northwest University, Xi’an 710100, China
Yu-Jie Chu: Department of Tourism Management, Northwest University, Xi’an 710100, China
Ya-Jun Guo: Department of Tourism Management, Northwest University, Xi’an 710100, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: As sustainable behaviors that contribute to the development of human society, prosocial behaviors are an important part of the moral cultivation of college students and have attracted the growing attention of higher education in recent years. It has been indicated by previous studies that transformative tourism experiences can have a profound impact on individual prosocial behaviors. Therefore, how transformative tourism experiences play a role in strengthening college students’ prosocial behaviors has become a topic worthy of note. Based on the self-determination theory, the awe prototype theory, and the transformative tourism research, this study constructed a mechanism model of the transformative tourism experiences affecting college students’ prosocial behaviors. Four hundred and fifty-four valid questionnaires were collected through questionnaire surveys, with the structural equation model and bootstrap analysis method used for the empirical test. The results showed that transformative tourism experiences became one of the important ways to strengthen college students’ prosocial behaviors and that the multiple chain intermediary effects of awe and social connectedness between transformative tourism experiences and the college students’ prosocial behaviors were significant. This study provided a new way to cultivate college students’ prosocial behaviors and promote the sustainable development of human society, and it provided a theoretical basis for the social education function played by research tourism in higher education.

Keywords: transformative tourism experiences; dispositional awe; social connectedness; prosocial behaviors of college students; chain mediation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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