Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:51:52.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of attitudinal and sociodemographic factors on pro-environmental behaviour in urban China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2011

XIAODONG CHEN ,
M. NILS PETERSON ,
VANESSA HULL ,
CHUNTIAN LU ,
GRAISE D. LEE ,
DAYONG HONG  and
JIANGUO LIU
XIAODONG CHEN*
Affiliation:
Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
M. NILS PETERSON
Affiliation:
Fisheries and Wildlife Program, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Box 7646, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
VANESSA HULL
Affiliation:
Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
CHUNTIAN LU
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
GRAISE D. LEE
Affiliation:
Fisheries and Wildlife Program, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Box 7646, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
DAYONG HONG
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
JIANGUO LIU
Affiliation:
Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr Xiaodong Chen e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

China currently faces severe environmental challenges, and information regarding the predictors of pro-environmental behaviour in China is needed to manage them. This study addresses this need by modelling the sociodemographic and attitudinal factors predicting pro-environmental behaviour in urban China. Pro-environmental behaviour was modelled as a function of environmental attitude (measured using the new environmental paradigm) and various sociodemographic characteristics. Respondents who were employed, holding leadership positions, living in larger cities and single were more likely to participate in pro-environmental behaviour. These results accord with previous studies suggesting being female, younger, highly educated and having environmentally oriented attitudes increased the odds of participating in pro-environmental behaviour. The rapid urbanization and economic development in China may significantly impact pro-environmental behaviour in the future.

Keywords

Chinaenvironmental attitudenew environmental paradigmodds ratiopro-environmental behaviour
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 45 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ajzen, I. (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50 (2): 179–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arcury, T.A. & Christianson, E.H. (1990). Environmental worldview in response to environmental problems: Kentucky 1984 and 1988 compared. Environment and Behavior 22 (3): 387–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barkan, S.E. (2004) Explaining public support for the environmental movement: a civic voluntarism model. Social Science Quarterly 85 (4): 913–937.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blocker, T.J. & Eckberg, D.L. (1997) Gender and environmentalism: results from the 1993 General Social Survey. Social Science Quarterly 78 (4): 841–858.Google Scholar
Brechin, S.R. (1999) Objective problems, subjective values, and global environmentalism: evaluating the postmaterialist argument and challenging a new explanation. Social Science Quarterly 80 (4): 793–809.Google Scholar
Brechin, S.R. & Kempton, W. (1994) Global environmentalism: a challenge to the postmaterialism thesis. Social Science Quarterly 75 (2): 245–269.Google Scholar
Buttel, F.H. (1979) Age and environmental concern: multivariate analysis. Youth and Society 10 (3): 237–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buttel, F.H. (1987) New directions in environmental sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 13: 465–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buttel, F.H. (2002) Environmental sociology and the sociology of natural resources: institutional histories and intellectual legacies. Society and Natural Resources 15 (3): 205–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catton, W.R. & Dunlap, R.E. (1978 a) Environmental sociology: new paradigm. American Sociologist 13 (1): 41–49.Google Scholar
Catton, W.R. & Dunlap, R.E. (1978 b) Paradigms, theories, and primacy of Hep-Nep distinction. American Sociologist 13 (4): 256–259.Google Scholar
Chung, S.S. & Poon, C.S. (2001) A comparison of waste-reduction practices and new environmental paradigm of rural and urban Chinese citizens. Journal of Environmental Management 62 (1): 3–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, R.E. & Mertig, A.G. (1995) Global concern for the environment: is affluence a prerequisite? Journal of Social Issues 51 (4): 121–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, R.E. & Michelson, W., eds (2002) Handbook of Environmental Sociology. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Dunlap, R.E. & Van Liere, K.D. (1978) The ‘new environmental paradigm’: a proposed measuring instrument and preliminary results. Journal of Environmental Education 9 (4): 10–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, R.E. & York, R. (2008) The globalization of environmental concern and the limits of the postmaterialist values explanation: Evidence from four multinational surveys. Sociological Quarterly 49 (3): 529–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, R.E., Van Liere, K.D., Mertig, A.G. & Jones, R.E. (2000) Measuring endorsement of the new ecological paradigm: A revised NEP scale. Journal of Social Issues 56 (3): 425–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebreo, A. & Vining, J. (2001) How similar are recycling and waste reduction? Future orientation and reasons for reducing waste as predictors of self-reported behavior. Environment and Behavior 33 (3): 424–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feng, Z.W., Miao, H., Zhang, F.Z. & Huang, Y.Z. (2002) Effects of acid deposition on terrestrial ecosystems and their rehabilitation strategies in China. Journal of Environmental Sciences-China 14 (2): 227–233.Google ScholarPubMed
Gong, W. & Lei, J. (2007) An analysis of gender difference in the environmental concern and environmentally friendly behaviors of Chinese urban residents. Humanities and Social Sciences Journal of Hainan University 25 (3): 340–345 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Harris, P.G. (2006) Environmental perspectives and behavior in China: synopsis and bibliography. Environment and Behavior 38 (1): 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, P.G. (2004) ‘Getting rich is glorious’: environmental values in the People's Republic of China. Environmental Values 13:145–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hong, D. (2005) Environmental concern of the Chinese urban residents. Jiangsu Social Sciences 1: 127–132 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Hong, D. (2006) Measurement of environmental concern: application of the NEP scale in China. Society 26: 71–92 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Hong, D. & Xiao, C. (2007) Sociological analysis on gender difference of environmental concern. Sociological Studies 2007 2: 1–19 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Howell, S.E. & Laska, S.B. (1992) The changing face of the environmental coalition: a research note. Environment and Behavior 24 (1): 134–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, L.M., Hatch, A. & Johnson, A. (2004) Cross-national gender variation in environmental behaviors. Social Science Quarterly 85 (3): 677–694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ITTO (2006) International Tropical Timber Organization annual review and assessment of the world timber situation [www document]. URL http://www.itto.or.jp/live/Live_Server/377/E-AR06-Text.pdfGoogle Scholar
Kalnay, E. & Cai, M. (2003) Impact of urbanization and land-use change on climate. Nature 423 (6939): 528–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leung, C. & Rice, J. (2002) Comparison of Chinese-Australian and Anglo-Australian environmental attitudes and behavior. Social Behavior and Personality 30 (3): 251–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, S.C. (2003) Recycling behavior under China's social and economic transition: the case of metropolitan Wuhan. Environment and Behavior 35 (6): 784–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, J. G. (2010) China's road to sustainability. Science 328 (5974): 50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, J. & Diamond, J. (2005) China's environment in a globalizing world. Nature 435: 1179–1186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, J.G. & Diamond, J. (2008) Science and government: revolutionizing China's environmental protection. Science 319 (5859): 37–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, J. G. & Raven, P. H. (2010) China's environmental challenges and implications for the world. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 40 (9–10): 823–851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lo, C.W.-H. & Leung, S.-W. (1998) Environmental protection and popular environmental consciousness in China. In: China Review, ed. Cheng, J.Y.S., pp. 501–541. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Long, J.S. & Freese, J. (2006) Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata. College Station, Texas, USA: Stata Press.Google Scholar
Maloney, M.P., Ward, M.P. & Braucht, G.N. (1975) Psychology in action: revised scale for measurement of ecological attitudes and knowledge. American Psychologist 30 (7): 787–790.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mertig, A.G., Dunlap, R.E. & Morrison, D.E. (2002) The environmental movement in the United States. In: Handbook of Environmental Sociology, ed. Dunlap, R.E. & Michelson, W., pp. 448–481. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Mohai, P. & Twight, B.W. (1987) Age and environmentalism: an elaboration of the Buttel model using national survey evidence. Social Science Quarterly 68 (4): 798–815.Google Scholar
Pauly, D., Alder, J., Bennett, E., Christensen, V., Tyedmers, P. & Watson, R. (2003) The future for fisheries. Science 302 (5649): 1359–1361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schultz, P.W. & Oskamp, S. (1996) Effort as a moderator of the attitude-behavior relationship: general environmental concern and recycling. Social Psychology Quarterly 59 (4): 375–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, P.W. & Zelezny, L.C. (1998) Values and proenvironmental behavior: a five-country survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 29 (4): 540–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, P.W., Zelezny, L. & Dalrymple, N.J. (2000) A multinational perspective on the relationship between Judeo-Christian religious beliefs and attitudes of environmental concern. Environment and Behavior 32 (4): 576–591.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, D. & Willits, F.K. (1994) Environmental attitudes and behavior: a Pennsylvania survey. Environment and Behavior 26 (2): 239–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
State Bureau of Statistics of China (2003) China City Statistical Yearbook. Beijing, China: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Stern, P.C., Dietz, T. & Kalof, L. (1993) Value orientations, gender, and environmental concern. Environment and Behavior 25 (5): 322–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, P.C., Dietz, T. & Guagnano, G.A. (1995) The new ecological paradigm in social-psychological context. Environment and Behavior 27 (6): 723–743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrant, M.A. & Cordell, H.K. (1997) The effect of respondent characteristics on general attitude-behavior correspondence. Environment and Behavior 29 (5): 618–637.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tindall, D.B., Davies, S. & Mauboules, C. (2003) Activism and conservation behavior in an environmental movement: the contradictory effects of gender. Society and Natural Resources 16 (10): 909–932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations (2004) World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision. New York, NY, USA: The United Nations: 336 pp.Google Scholar
Van Liere, K.D. & Dunlap, R.E. (1980) The social bases of environmental concern: a review of hypotheses, explanations and empirical evidence. Public Opinion Quarterly 44 (2): 181–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vining, J. & Ebreo, A. (1992) Predicting recycling behavior from global and specific environmental attitudes and changes in recycling opportunities. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 22 (20): 1580–1607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitousek, P.M., Mooney, H.A., Lubchenco, J. & Melillo, J.M. (1997) Human domination of Earth's ecosystems. Science 277 (5325): 494–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widegren, O. (1998) The new environmental paradigm and personal norms. Environment and Behavior 30 (1): 75–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (2001) China: Air, Land, and Water: Environmental Priorities for a New Millennium. Washington, DC, USA: World Bank.Google Scholar