Date

2023-1-05

Author

Alpay, Bora

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The aim of this study is to examine the water consumption behaviors of middle school students within the scope of the Value Belief Norm Theory. The Theory include constructs (i.e., values (egoistic, altruistic and biospheric), beliefs, awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility, personal norms and pro-environmental behaviors) which affects each other in a causal chain of five variables. In the current study, inclusion of nature in self and hierarchy with nature were also examined as an additional construct in the context of connectedness with nature. Data were collected in one of the districts of Istanbul in October 2021 with the participation of 616 middle school students. The method of the research was determined as correlational. Value-Belief-Norm Theory successfully explained the water conservation behaviors of middle school students. The multiple correlation (R) was 69.4, with R2 = .48.2. The results showed that the model significantly accounted for 48.2% of the variation in students’ water consumption behavior (F = 419.51, p < .000). A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was applied to the data to determine which variable were the best predictors of WCB. Result revealed that personal norms was the main predictor of WCB, explaining 45% of variance, while human based view accounted for 16%, biospheric and altruistic values accounted for 13% when they are combined and INS was accounted for 7% of the WCB. Overall, middle school students’ the water consumption behaviors predicted positively by their biospheric - altruistic values, nature based views, ascription of responsibilities, personal norms and connectedness to nature, and negatively by human based NEP views. Based on the descriptive results of the research, it was observed that middle school students had high levels of biospheric and altruistic values, awareness of consequences regarding waste of water, water conservation behavior, moral obligation to conserve water and strong beliefs regarding nature based views. However, while the students felt close to nature, their egoistic values and human based views were at a moderate level.

Subject Keywords

Water Consumption, Value-Belief-Norm Theory, Behavior, The Inclusion of Nature in Self, Universal Values

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/101958

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis