2017/11/30 by Silvia Collado, Henk Staats, Patricia Sancho +1 · 150 citations
Environmental Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Developmental psychology #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Environmentalism #Normative #Normative social influence #Perception #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Set (abstract data type) #Social norms approach #Social psychology
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/0013916517744591
published in Environment and Behavior 51(3), 288-314 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2017/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Pro-environmental behavioral patterns are influenced by relevant others’ actions and expectations. Studies about the intergenerational transmission of environmentalism have demonstrated that parents play a major role in their children’s pro-environmental actions. However, little is known about how other social agents may shape youth’s environmentalism. This cross-sectional study concentrates on the role that parents and peers have in the regulation of 12- to 19-year-olds’ pro-environmental behaviors. We also consider the common response bias effect by examining the associations between parents, peers, and adolescents’ pro-environmentalism in two independent data sets. Data Set 1 ( N = 330) includes adolescents’ perceptions of relevant others’ behaviors. Data Set 2 ( N = 152) includes relevant others’ self-reported pro-environmental behavior. Our results show that parents’ and peers’ descriptive and injunctive norms have a direct effect on adolescents’ pro-environmental behavior and an indirect one, through personal norms. Adolescents seem to be accurate in the perception of their close ones’ environmental actions.