Anaëlle J. Gonzalez
KU Leuven
Laura Vandenbosch
KU Leuven
Ann Rousseau
KU Leuven
Reference
Gonzalez, A., Vandenbosch, L., & Rousseau, A. (2023). A Panel Study of the Relationships Between Social Media Interactions and Adolescents’ Pro-Environmental Cognitions and Behaviors. Environment and Behavior, 55(6–7), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165231194331
Abstract
Despite the circulation of climate content on social media, little longitudinal research has explored their relations with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Considering that individual behaviours, in conjunction with structural change, are critical to mitigate climate change, this two-wave panel study among 657 adolescents examined how social media interactions (i.e. exposure, liking, commenting, sharing and posting of climate messages) reciprocally related to adolescents’ pro-environmental cognitions (i.e. descriptive and injunctive norms, attitudes) and behaviour. The study showed transactional relationships between self-posting and sharing of climate content over time. Pro-environmental behaviour at Wave 1 (W1) positively related to all cognitive variables at Wave 2 (W2), yet no reciprocal relationship occurred as none of the cognitive variables (W1) predicted behaviour (W2) over time. Moreover, with the exception of the positive link between ‘liking’ (W1) and attitudes (W2), no (reciprocal) relationships between social media interactions and adolescents’ pro-environmental cognitions and behaviour occurred over time.
Keywords
Pro-environmental behaviours
Social media interactions
Adolescence
Methods
Longitudinal study
Structural Equation Modelling
Main findings
01
Sharing and posting climate-related content on social media had a reciprocal effect, where sharing someone else’s content about the climate influenced the act of posting climate-related content, and vice versa. In other words, these actions fed into each other over time.
02
When adolescents engaged in pro-environmental behavior at the first time point, they were more likely to have positive attitudes and norms about the environment at the second time point. However, having positive attitudes and norms at the first time point did not lead to pro-environmental behavior at the second time point. This means that we observed a gap between what people think, and what they do (i.e., attitude-behavior gap).
03
Liking climate-related content on social media influenced an individual’s attitudes towards the environment, but it did not lead to a change in behavior.
04
We found that people’s actions and thoughts on social media about the environment were not necessarily reflected in their real-life actions and thoughts. Except for a small connection between liking climate-related posts and having positive attitudes towards the environment, we did not see much of a relationship between social media and people’s environmental behaviors, attitudes and norms over time.
Reference
Gonzalez, A., Vandenbosch, L., & Rousseau, A. (2023). A Panel Study of the Relationships Between Social Media Interactions and Adolescents’ Pro-Environmental Cognitions and Behaviors. Environment and Behavior, 55(6–7), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/00139165231194331