Examining the Causal Relationships Among Selected Antecedents of Responsible Environmental Behavior

Abstract

Attitude models have been widely applied to natural resource management to ensure responsible environmental behavior. For a variety of applications, the causality among selected antecedents, such as knowledge of environmental issues, locus of control, attitude, personal responsibility, and intention to act on responsible environmental behavior has not yet been tested empirically. A hypothesized causal model based on Hine's (1986) model on responsible environmental behavior was developed. The data from 523 visitors to the urban forest trail in the Kwang-Reung Arboretum, Korea, during September 1995 were used for testing the suggested causal model. Path analysis using the LISREL program tested the model fit and statistical effects of variables. In terms of the effects on intention to act, locus of control and attitude are more important than knowledge and personal responsibility. Our findings suggest that in order to enhance responsible environmental behavior, environmental education and interpretation systems need to focus on changing the internal locus of control. Several recommendations, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yeong-Hyeon Hwang

Yeong-Hyeon Hwang is a Ph.D. candidate and Seong-Il Kim is an associate professor in the Department of Forest Resources, Seoul National University, Korea. Jiann-Min Jeng is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Leisure Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne.