IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i10p4543-d1657030.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Drives Pro-Environmental Behavior? Investigating the Role of Eco-Worry and Eco-Anxiety in Young Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Laura López-García

    (Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28922 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain
    Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28922 Alcorcón, Spain)

  • Felisa Latorre

    (Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28922 Alcorcón, Spain)

  • María Luisa Vecina

    (Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28922 Pozuelo de Alarcón, Spain)

  • Cintia Díaz-Silveira

    (Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28922 Alcorcón, Spain)

Abstract

Climate change (CC) is one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Research suggests that pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) are essential to address this crisis, encompassing sustainable consumption (e.g., recycling or saving energy) and active participation (e.g., protesting or donating). In this regard, young adults play a significant role as change agents. Considering the previous literature affirming the importance of CC emotions on PEB, this study aims to analyze the mediating role of eco-worry and eco-anxiety in the relationship between two cognitive antecedents (general willingness to behave pro-environmentally and CC agency) and two types of PEB (sustainable consumption and active participation). To do so, we gathered a sample of 308 young adults aged 18 to 30 years. Results show that eco-worry mediates the relationships between both antecedents (willingness and CC agency) with sustainable consumption and active participation. In contrast, eco-anxiety in young adults only mediates the relationship between CC agency and active participation. Our findings suggest that eco-worry plays a crucial role in promoting PEB more broadly, while eco-anxiety appears to be only relevant in influencing active participation. These results contrast with others observed in the adult population, so further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura López-García & Felisa Latorre & María Luisa Vecina & Cintia Díaz-Silveira, 2025. "What Drives Pro-Environmental Behavior? Investigating the Role of Eco-Worry and Eco-Anxiety in Young Adults," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-23, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4543-:d:1657030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4543/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4543/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4543-:d:1657030. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.