Abstract
The impact of climate change and the demand of people for water resources are dramatically increasing. In order to protect water supply in the world, it is essential to develop individuals’ sustainable water consumption behaviors. Teachers play a key role in fostering students’ beliefs, attitudes, values and behaviors about sustainable water consumption. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore pre-service teachers’ sustainable water consumption behaviors using the Value-Belief-Norm theory. 481 pre-service teachers completed a questionnaire measuring sustainable water consumption behavior, universal values, personal norms and beliefs that were categorized as awareness of consequences and ascription of responsibility. The results revealed that the Value-Belief-Norm theory could successfully explain sustainable water consumption behaviors of pre-service teachers. The study revealed that personal norm was a strong predictor to explain sustainable water consumption behavior. Mediation analysis confirmed the causal order of the variables in the model. In other words, personal norms mediated the relationship between ascription of responsibility and sustainable water consumption behavior; ascription of responsibility mediated the relationship between awareness of consequences and personal norms; awareness of consequences mediated the relationship between biospheric-altruistic values and ascription of responsibility; and lastly, personal norms mediated the relationship between biospheric-altruistic values and sustainable water consumption behavior. The results have important implications for education programs and environmental program designers. Through designing water conservation education programs, teachers and students’ sustainable water consumption behaviors can be fostered by strengthening their biospheric-altruistic values, environmental beliefs and personal norm to act for the environment.
Highlights
Throughout history, humans’ relation with water has been very important, and with population growth and urbanization, the demand for water resources has increased [1]
Of the 481 participants, 39.5% were enrolled in the early childhood teacher education program; 33.5% were in the primary school teacher education program; 14% were in the mathematics teacher education program; and 13% were in the science teacher education program
There is a lack of studies predicting sustainable water consumption behaviors (SWCB) of pre-service teachers using the Value-Belief-Norm theory (VBN) theory
Summary
Throughout history, humans’ relation with water has been very important, and with population growth and urbanization, the demand for water resources has increased [1]. Urbanization and industrialization, water pollution has increased and clean water resources have decreased. The city of Agrı, where this study was conducted, is located in the east border of Turkey. There are water supplies such as rivers, streams and lakes, the problem in this region is the insufficient water management strategies because of financial problems and lack of awareness of water conservation in the society. Insufficiency of the water treatment system and lack of environmental awareness of people cause water pollution in the rivers, lakes and streams in the city [5]
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