| Literature DB >> 36231186 |
Zhaoyun Yin1, Jing Ma1.
Abstract
Understanding why people do or do not perform household waste separation is a vital premise for designing relevant policies to promote waste management. As such, in this paper, an empirical study was carried out to explore the impacts of both rational choice and altruism factors on residents' household waste separation behavior. Through the analysis of the survey sample (n = 1102) from Xi'an, China, using structural equation modeling, the main findings suggested that (i) the rational choice model can better explain such behavior, (ii) the altruism factor cannot directly affect household waste separation behavior, (iii) the altruism factor is highly correlated with the attitude determinant of household waste separation behavior, and (iv) rational choice models incorporating the altruism factor may have better explanatory efficacy. After that, some factors influencing residents' altruism to household waste separation were identified. The main aim of this study was to compare two different tendencies in explaining sustainable behavior and help to find a better framework for behavior analysis.Entities:
Keywords: altruism factor; behavior; household waste separation; rational choice
Mesh:
Year: 2022 PMID: 36231186 PMCID: PMC9565340 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191911887
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health ISSN: 1660-4601 Impact factor: 4.614
Figure 1The standard TPB model. Notes: AD = attitude determinant; SN = subject norm; PBC = perceived behavioral control; BI = behavioral intention; AB = actual behavior.
Figure 2Location of Xi’an, China.
The distribution of demographic characteristics and living area (n = 1102).
| Category | Response | Frequency | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | |||
| Male | 439 | 39.84 | |
| Female | 663 | 60.16 | |
| Age | |||
| 7–14 | 153 | 13.88 | |
| 15–24 | 124 | 11.25 | |
| 25–34 | 204 | 18.51 | |
| 35–44 | 166 | 15.06 | |
| 45–54 | 120 | 10.89 | |
| 55–64 | 178 | 16.15 | |
| Over 64 | 157 | 14.25 | |
| Education level | |||
| Illiterate | 15 | 1.36 | |
| Elementary school | 162 | 14.70 | |
| Junior high school | 199 | 18.06 | |
| Senior high school | 257 | 23.32 | |
| Junior college or Bachelor’s | 406 | 36.84 | |
| Master’s and above | 63 | 5.72 | |
| Monthly income (RMB) | |||
| Below 2500 | 440 | 39.93 | |
| 2501–4000 | 238 | 21.60 | |
| 4001–6000 | 188 | 17.06 | |
| 6001–8000 | 100 | 9.07 | |
| 8001–10,000 | 55 | 4.99 | |
| 10,001–20,000 | 62 | 5.63 | |
| Over 20,000 | 19 | 1.72 | |
| Living area | |||
| Baqiao | 220 | 19.96 | |
| Beilin | 144 | 13.07 | |
| Lianhu | 184 | 16.70 | |
| Weiyang | 173 | 15.70 | |
| Xincheng | 165 | 14.97 | |
| Yanta | 216 | 19.60 |
All participants have lived in their community for more than one year.
Figure 3Path analysis of research model. Notes: AF = altruism factor; AD = attitude determinant; SN = subject norm; PBC = perceived behavioral control; HWSI = household waste separation intention; HWSB = household waste separation behavior; Only the items that can be used for confirmatory factor analysis were reported (factor loading > 0.6).
Test results of discriminant validity.
| AF | PBC | SN | AD | HWSI | HWSB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AF | 0.264 | |||||
| PBC | 0.114 | 0.429 | ||||
| SN | 0.090 | 0.039 | 0.503 | |||
| AD | 0.216 | 0.094 | 0.074 | 0.219 | ||
| HWSI | 0.086 | 0.195 | 0.130 | 0.072 | 0.272 | |
| HWSB | 0.078 | 0.159 | 0.107 | 0.065 | 0.220 | 0.761 |
AF = altruism factor; AD = attitude determinant; SN = subject norm; PBC = perceived behavioral control; HWSI = household waste separation intention; HWSB = household waste separation behavior.
Test results of research hypotheses.
| Hypotheses | Relationships | Estimates | S.E. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H1 | AD→HWSI | 0.04 | 0.099 | ns |
| H2 | SN→HWSI | 0.29 | 0.024 | <0.001 |
| H3 | PBC→HWSI | 0.52 | 0.034 | <0.001 |
| H4 | HWSI→HWSB | 0.48 | 0.053 | <0.001 |
| H5 | AF→HWSI | 0.04 | 0.091 | ns |
| H6 | AF→HWSB | 0.02 | 0.051 | ns |
| H7 | AF→AD | 0.90 | 0.031 | <0.001 |
| H8 | AF→SN | 0.25 | 0.047 | <0.001 |
| H9 | AF→PBC | 0.34 | 0.050 | <0.001 |
AF = altruism factor; AD = attitude determinant; SN = subject norm; PBC = perceived behavioral control; HWSI = household waste separation intention; HWSB = household waste separation behavior; S.E. means standard error; “ns” means not significant (p > 0.1).
TPB accounted for the variance in intention and behavior.
| Without Altruism Factor | With Altruism Factor | |
|---|---|---|
| Household waste separation intention | 38% | 42% |
| Household waste separation behavior | 22% | 23% |
Multiple regression analysis of influencing factors of altruism.
| Variables | Baseline Model | Including the Additional Variables | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| β1 | β2 | |||||
| Gender | −0.036 | −0.99 | ns | −0.021 | −0.61 | ns |
| Age | 0.028 | 3.75 | <0.01 | 0.014 | 1.99 | <0.05 |
| Education | −0.017 | −0.96 | ns | −0.016 | −0.91 | ns |
| Income | 0.009 | 0.56 | ns | 0.008 | 0.52 | ns |
| Policy | 0.029 | 1.87 | <0.1 | |||
| Information intervention | 0.130 | 4.72 | <0.01 | |||
| Knowledge | 0.048 | 2.56 | <0.05 | |||
|
| 1102 | 1102 | ||||
| R-squared | 0.012 | 0.070 | ||||
The model passed the multicollinearity test; “ns” means not significant (p > 0.1).
Questionnaire of the Survey.
| Constructs | Tag | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Attitude determinant (AD) | AD1 | Household waste separation is good. |
| AD2 | Household waste separation is rewarding. | |
| AD3 | Household waste separation is hygienic. | |
| AD4 | Household waste separation is pleasant. | |
| Subject norm (SN) | SN1 | My family expect me to separate household waste. |
| SN2 | My friends expect me to separate household waste. | |
| SN3 | My neighbors expect me to separate household waste. | |
| SN4 | The government expect me to separate household waste. | |
| SN5 | Environmental organization expect me to separate household waste. | |
| Perceived behavioral control (PBC) | PBC1 | I know how to separate household waste. |
| PBC2 | Household waste separation is easy. | |
| PBC3 | Whether or not I separate household waste is entirely up to me. | |
| PBC4 | I have a lot of time to separate household waste. | |
| PBC5 | I have enough space in my house to store the separated waste. | |
| Altruism factor (AF) | AF1 | Household waste separation can decrease environmental pollution for public health. |
| AF2 | Failure to separate household waste will damage public environment. | |
| AF3 | Household waste separation can reduce the waste of public resources. | |
| AF4 | Household waste separation can provide a better environment for others (such as human offspring). | |
| Household waste separation intention (HWSI) | HWSI1 | I am willing to separate household waste. |
| HWSI2 | I plan to separate household waste. | |
| HWSI3 | I will try my best to separate household waste. | |
| Household waste separation behavior (HWSB) | HWSB | I never/often separate my household waste. |