Sustainability in youth: environmental considerations in adolescence and their relationship to pro-environmental behavior

ENAdolescents today face the negative outcomes of climate change, and their proenvironmental behavior is crucial to mitigate these negative outcomes. Yet, we know little about what influences adolescents’ pro-environmental behavior. Research shows that people’s biospheric values and environmental self-identity, elicit personal norms to act environmentally friendly, which can induce a wide range of pro-environmental actions. Yet there is no evidence that these factors can influence pro-environmental behavior of adolescents, because this has only been studied for adults. Given that in adolescence, values, identities and moral structures undergo intense development, the question is whether these factors can motivate adolescents to act pro-environmentally. To address this question, we have conducted three studies with adolescents in Lithuania (Study 1: N = 256; Study 2: N = 349; Study 3: N = 905). We found support that adolescents’ biospheric values and environmental self-identity were associated, via personal norms, with a wide range of pro-environmental behaviors, including recycling, environmentally friendly traveling, purchasing environmentally friendly goods and drinking tap water. Based on theory and the current findings, we suggest directions for policies aimed at promoting pro-environmental behavior of adolescents. Keywords: biospheric values, environmental self-identity, personal norms, environmental behavior, environmental considerations, adolescents. [From the publication]

• Are we on the same page? Exploring the relationships between environmental values, self-identity, personal norms and behavior in parent-adolescent dyads / Audra Balundė, Goda Perlavičiūtė. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2023. 92, p. 114-120.
• Reducing bottled water use among adolescents: a factorial experimental approach to testing the components of the "aquatic" program / Inga Truskauskaitė-Kunevičienė, Goda Kaniušonytė, Mykolas Simas Poškus, Audra Balundė, Vaida Gabė, Lina Jovarauskaitė and Metin Özdemir. Sustainability (Basel). 2021, 13, 6758, 20 p.
• The Effect of potentially groundwater-contaminating ecological disaster on adolescents' bottled water consumption and perceived risk to use tap water / Mykolas Simas Poškus, Audra Balundė, Lina Jovarauskaitė, Goda Kaniušonytė and Rita Žukauskienė. Sustainability (Basel). 2021, 13, 5811.
• The Effect of potentially groundwater-contaminating ecological disaster on adolescents’ bottled water consumption and perceived risk to use tap water / Mykolas Simas Poškus, Audra Balundė, Lina Jovarauskaitė, Goda Kaniušonytė and Rita Žukauskienė. Sustainability (Basel). 2021, 13, 5811, 17 p.
• The Relationship between people’s environmental considerations and pro-environmental behavior in Lithuania / Audra Balundė, Goda Perlaviciute, Linda Steg. Frontiers in psychology. 2019, 10, pdf (10 p.).