Parents’ Environmental Literacy: From Knowledge to Pro-Environmental Behavior

Abstract

Background: Environmental problems are still unsolved, so it is necessary to strengthen parents’ environmental literacy because they play an active role in modeling behavior for their children, including pro-environmental behavior and awareness.   Purpose: this study investigated parents’ environmental literacy in pro-environmental behavior, including consumption-related behavior (C-RB) and nature protection behavior (NTB), based on environmental knowledge, environmental affect, and environmental self-efficacy (ES-e).   Methodology: The research data collection was done by using a questionnaire in Likert scale format. The study participants were 275 parents. They have early childhood, which determines by accidental sampling from eight provinces in Indonesia. Data analysis begins with descriptive and correlational analysis and continues with structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to test hypotheses and research models.   Results: This study found that pro-environmental behavior is influenced by environmental knowledge by mediating environmental affect and ES-e. Its path is that environmental knowledge affects environmental affect and ES-e and then has implications for pro-environmental behavior.   Practical implications: The significant direct and indirect effects were confirmed, therefore a new model of the effect of environmental knowledge on pro-environmental behavior mediated by environmental affect and ES-e was found. This model can explain the dynamics parents’ environmental literacy: from environmental knowledge to pro-environmental behavior through the mediating mechanism of environmental affect and ES-e. Therefore, practitioners, academics, and researchers can discuss, adapt, or adopt these findings to develop pro-environmental in the future.