| With the rapid development of human society,we are enjoying the progress of technology and at the same time,we are also suffering from the harm caused by environmental pollution.Atmospheric pollution,glacial melting,water shortage,land sanding,and wildlife extinction are all serious threats to the sustainable development of human society.Ecological protection is one of the most important tasks for all countries in the world today,and the ultimate goal of psychological research is to help solve real-world problems,so pro-environmental behavior has gradually become a popular research topic in environmental psychology in the past 20 years.Previous research on pro-environmental behavior has focused primarily on proximate influences,with less attention paid to ultimate variables.As a core variable in an individual’s childhood environment,childhood socioeconomic status at the ultimate level has a significant impact on his or her psychological and behavioral development as an adult,and some studies have found that childhood socioeconomic status significantly and positively predicts individual green consumption behavior.Life history theory is a theory that explains the psychological and behavioral performance of individuals at the ultimate level.It is believed that individuals’ choice of life history strategies is influenced by the environment in which they grew up as children,and due to the different resources available to them early in their life course,individuals’ tendency to choose life history strategies will also vary greatly,which in turn affects their various behaviors in adulthood.Therefore,this study extends the study to older adults aged 60 and above from a life course perspective,traces the influence of childhood socioeconomic status on individuals’ pro-environmental behaviors at the ultimate level,and further explores the underlying psychological mechanisms based on life history theory.This study contains a total of three sub-studies.Study 1 explored the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status and individual pro-environmental behavior by analyzing data from CGSS2013.11,438 valid study participants were obtained,and the results found that childhood socioeconomic status had a significant positive predictive effect on individual pro-environmental behavior.Study 2 recruited 276 participants for an online questionnaire and found that childhood socioeconomic status had a significant positive predictive effect on pro-environmental behavior and that life history strategies mediated the effect.Study 3 extended the study population to the elderly group,and searched for elderly people aged 60 and above in parks,neighborhoods,and streets in Bengbu,Anhui Province,as participants,and conducted offline questionnaire research by means of oral questionnaires,and obtained 115 valid study subjects.The results of the study found that the influence of childhood socioeconomic status on individuals does extend to the older stage of their life course,and positively predicts elderly pro-environmental behavior,where life history strategies still play a mediating role.These results both enrich the research on pro-environmental behavior and provide some complement to the research in the area of childhood socioeconomic status.In the context of an aging society,the results of this study provide some reference for intervening in the pro-environmental behaviors of individuals,especially in older adults. |
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