The Drivers of Pro-environmental Behaviors in College Students

During the last few decades, it has become more and more apparent that the condition of the environment of our planet is becoming worse and worse with each passing year. The human population of today is facing threats in the form of global warming, climate change, biodiversity loss, and many more. With this picture in mind, it might seem obvious why researchers in recent years have started to look at what motivates and drives college students to act sustainably. College students have become a particularly interesting group to study when it comes to drivers and motivations behind pro- environmental behavior because they are going to be the next stewards of this earth. This study aims to further the research on college students and the drivers behind them acting sustainably. To reach this aim the existing model of the theory of planned behavior was extended by adding the component of environmental knowledge and part of the extended parallel process model. Based on this model a survey was constructed, which was filled out by over 200 college students attending the University of South Florida. The fit of the statistical model was not optimal, but the analysis of the collected data, nevertheless, showed that environmental knowledge affects parts of the TPB and that the parts of the EPPM also affects specific components of the EPPM. Future research in this topic area could provide further insight into what makes college student act sustainably