Research On The Current Situation And The Relationship Among Connectedness To Nature,Eco-guilt And Pro-environmental Behavior For University Students

A sound ecological environment is a strong support for sustainable economic development.University students are the backbone of future social development.If they think and act in an environmental-friendly way,the whole society will flourish towards a sustainable development path.At present,the factors that promote pro-environmental behaviors are mostly considered from the cognitive level,while emotion,an important driving factor of pro-environmental behaviors,is ignored.Connectedness to nature is an individual’s experiential and emotional connection to nature and is considered as a crucial emotional factor influencing pro-environmental behavior.For now,many foreign studies have proved connectedness to nature has the positive effect on pro-environmental behaviors,but there are only few studies on the relationship between connectedness to nature and pro-environmental behaviors in domestic university students,and the impact mechanism is still unclear.According to construal level theory,social exchange theory and cognitive dissonance theory,it can be inferred that individuals with a higher level of connectedness to nature are more closely connected with nature,and will have a strong emotional response after violating the ecological environment behavioral norms,which will lead to feeling eco-guilt.Thus,they will adopt pro-environmental behaviors as a method to alleviate the imbalance created by eco-guilt.Eco-guilt refers to the guilt that people feel when they think that their actions fall short of personal or social environmental behavioral standards.Therefore,this study argues that connectedness to nature can promote pro-environmental behavior of university students through the mediating effect of eco-guilt.Accordingly,this study uses two sub-studies to explore the impact and mechanism of university students’ connectedness to nature on pro-environmental behavior.According to the principle of questionnaire revise,study 1 took university students as the research object,and revised the university students’ eco-guilt questionnaire as the measurement tool of the second study.In Study 2,624 university students were measured by self-report questionnaire method to investigate the current status and relationship of university students’ connectedness to nature,eco-guilt and pro-environmental behavior,and to explore the differences in demographic variables.The following conclusions can be drawn from the above two empirical studies:(1)The revised university students’ eco-guilt questionnaire has 9 items in all,which has good validity and reliability,and can be used as a follow-up measurement tool for university students’ eco-guilt.(2)The connectedness to nature,eco-guilt and pro-environmental behavior of university students are all at the upper-middle level.(3)There are significant differences in some demographic variables among university students’ connectedness to nature,eco-guilt and pro-environmental behavior.(4)There is a significant positive correlation between university students’ connectedness to nature and eco-guilt;university students’ pro-environmental behaviors are significantly positively related to connectedness to nature and eco-guilt.(5)After controlling for grade,major,and monthly household income,the effect of connectedness to nature on university students’ pro-environmental behavior was mediated by eco-guilt.