A Longitudinal Investigation of a Partial SMEC in a Sample of University Students

Abstract

A part of the Simple Model of Environmental Citizenship (SMEC) was explored in a two-wave longitudinal study in a non-intervention setting with approximately one month between measurements. The variables of environmental citizenship, environmental literacy, concrete environmental knowledge, and environmental (self-)education were chosen as potentially the most malleable parts of the SMEC which could naturally change over time in an educational setting. A total of 171 university students participated in the first measurement wave of the study, and 93 participants were retained in the second wave. The mean age of participants was 23 years of age (SD = 4), and 76.6% of participants were women, 21.6% were men, and 1.8% chose not to answer. Results uncovered that, in one month’s time, participants’ concrete environmental knowledge as well as environmental literacy significantly increased, while environmental (self-)education and environmental citizenship had positive yet insignificant effects. Path analysis revealed that measurements at the second measurement wave did not add any new variance that could not be explained through first wave measurements, highlighting that the development of the investigated variables requires more time.