Social Well-Being and Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Cross-Lagged Panel Design

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to investigate the bidirectional relationship between social well-being and energy conservation behavior as a form of pro-environmental behavior. Participants were 298 undergraduate and master’s students at an Italian public university. We applied structural equation modeling with two waves of survey data from a cross-lagged panel design to investigate reciprocal relationships between latent variables representing social well-being and pro-environmental behavior. Results showed that pro-environmental behavior at baseline predicted later social well-being controlling for the effects of baseline social well-being. Conversely, social well-being at baseline predicted subsequent levels of pro-environmental behavior controlling for previous levels of pro-environmental behavior. Results were compared using multi-group invariance testing of paths across gender. These relationships did not differ between men and women. Together, these findings suggest that a bidirectional relationship between social well-being and pro-environmental behavior is supported.