Which factors determine students’ water-saving behaviors? Evidence from China colleges

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we attempt to answer the following questions: Which factors determine college students’ water-saving behaviors? The answer can enable colleges to take targeted water management measures to promote water-saving behaviors of students. Based on the theory of planned behavior and the combination of attitude-situation-behavior theory, this paper built a comprehensive theoretical model with sociodemographic characteristics, psychological characteristics as external dependent latent variables, situational factors as moderating variables, and water-saving behaviors as internal dependent latent variables. The research investigated 742 students in China colleges, and used corresponding methods to analyze the different types of the influencing factors of students’ water-saving behaviors. The results show that the sociodemographic characteristics of college students have no significant impact on water-saving behaviors; the psychological characteristics have a significant impact on individual water-saving behaviors; the situational factors have a significant moderating effect on individual water-saving behaviors of students.

KEYWORDS:

• College students
• water-saving behaviors
• behavior influencing factors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Sucience Foundation of China [grant NO.71774132]; Shaanxi Water Conservancy Science and Technology Project [grant NO.2020SLKJ-22], and Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education Key Scientific Research Project [grant NO.20JT053]. These financial supports provided by the sponsor are greatly appreciated.