Empirical evidence of the influence of family, media, school and peers in the separation of materials for recycling

This article analyzes the influence of family, school, media and peers on knowledge, in the sense of separation and the behavior of separation of materials for recycling by university students. To this end, the review makes a theoretical connection between the last stage of consumer behavior, which includes the separation of materials for recycling, and the agents of socialization that have been studied as influences on other types of behavior. A model and seven hypotheses were proposed by the authors. The research was divided into two stages. The first is characterized as a qualitative exploratory stage. The second, quantitative stage, was conducted with 351 university students. The quantitative analysis used the structural equation modeling to verify the proposed model. The results show that the four agents influence behavior during separation of materials for recycling either directly or indirectly. The behavior is influenced directly by personal contact (family and peers). But indirectly, the school, the media and peers impinge on feelings, serving as an antecedent of behavior.