Explaining the Relationship between Personality Traits and Pro-environmental Behaviors with the Mediating Role of Place Attachment

With the increasing importance of environmental problems, environmental psychology also seeks to create a sustainable relationship between humans and nature. In this regard, the present research investigated the role of personality traits in pro-environmental behaviors to better understand this relationship. It has also investigated the mediating role of place attachment in the relationship between personality and pro-environmental behaviors.

The method of this study was descriptive-correlation. The statistical population of this study was the students of Tarbiat Modares University in the academic year 2020-2021, 250 people were selected by available sampling method. To measure the research variables, the personality traits scale of McCree and Costa (1992), the place attachment scale of Safarinia (2013), and the questionnaire compiled by Ferdowsi, Mortazavi, and Rezvani (2007) from the environmental protection behavior questionnaires of Kaiser, Wolfing and Fehrer (1999) and Tarrant and Cordell (1997) were used. To analyze the data, the path analysis method was used in the structural equation model.

Fit indices and path coefficients (p<0.05) showed that the personality factors of extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness play a role in environmental behavior due to the mediating role of the place dependence factor.

If a person is extroverted, agreeable, conscientious, and has attachment to their place of living, they are more likely to exhibit pro-environmental behaviors. As a result, by knowing the relationship of individuals with different personality traits and affective relationships with home, their positive environmental behaviors can be strengthened.