Understanding the Nature of Pro-Environmental Behaviors: A Psychometric Network Analysis

Clercq, Mikaël De; Lacassagne, Doris; Parmentier, Michaël

doi:10.1177/00139165251356912

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Understanding the Nature of Pro-Environmental Behaviors: A Psychometric Network Analysis

Clercq, Mikaël De; Lacassagne, Doris; Parmentier, Michaël

2025 • In Environment and Behavior, 57 (7-8), p. 619 - 647

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/336765

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10.1177/00139165251356912

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Keywords :

attitudes; ecological behavior; emotion; norms; proenvironnemental behavior; Environmental Science (all)

Abstract :

[en] Understanding the factors that drive pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) is critical for both research and practice. While the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) provides a robust framework for predicting PEBs, its findings related to PEBs remain incomplete. First, PEB diversity is still overlooked and differentiating their nature and characteristics warrants further investigation. Second, TPB does not fully account for the emotional nature of the ecological transition. This study addresses these two limitations by implementing a psychometric network study among 2,100 participants testing an improved version of the TPB incorporating climate-related emotions and applied to five distinct types of PEBs: conservation, environmental citizenship, food consumption, transportation, and waste management. Our results identified perceived behavioral control as a particularly central variable in our networks. This paper also highlights the importance of considering different types of PEBs and contributes to the development of more effective strategies for fostering sustainable behaviors and facilitating ecological transition

Research Center/Unit :

HEC Recherche. Changing workplace and strategic HRM - ULiège
LENTIC - Laboratoire d'Études sur les Nouvelles Formes de Travail, l'Innovation et le Changement - ULiège

Disciplines :

Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Business & economic sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others

Author, co-author :

Clercq, Mikaël De ; Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium ; Académie de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur, Brussels, Belgium

Lacassagne, Doris ; Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Parmentier, Michaël ; Université de Liège - ULiège > HEC Liège Research > HEC Liège Research: Changing workplace and strategic HRM ; Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Understanding the Nature of Pro-Environmental Behaviors: A Psychometric Network Analysis

Publication date :

August 2025

Journal title :

Environment and Behavior

ISSN :

0013-9165

eISSN :

1552-390X

Publisher :

SAGE

Volume :

Issue :

7-8

Pages :

619 - 647

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00139165251356912

Available on ORBi :

since 15 October 2025

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