Effect of Domestic and Global Environmental Events on Environmental Concern and Environmental Responsibility among University Students

Abstract

Recently, both global and domestic environmental events have been occurring more frequently, bringing catastrophic consequences to humans and the environment. These adverse events have caused widespread concern among the general public. In positive terms, these devastating events could potentially enhance people’s environmental concern, which, in turn, could instill a greater sense of environmental responsibility. This study aims to examine how global and domestic environmental concerns mediate the effect of environmental knowledge and attitudes on environmental responsibility. Students of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in Bangkok, Thailand, were selected as the participants. A simple random technique was applied for selecting the participants. Questionnaire surveys with 863 students were carried out during September–October 2019. A path analysis was performed to test relationships among environmental knowledge, environmental attitudes, global and domestic environmental concerns, and environmental responsibility. The results demonstrated that domestic environmental concerns, taken alone, contributed less to the students’ sense of environmental responsibility. Domestic environmental concerns had a stronger effect on environmental responsibility when taken together with global environmental concerns. In addition, both domestic and global environmental concerns could help transform environmental knowledge and attitudes into environmental responsibility. Only environmental attitudes had no direct effect on responsibility. These results show that domestic and global catastrophic environmental events could raise students’ levels of concern for the environment, and, ultimately, enhance their sense of moral responsibility to protect the environment.

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