Intergenerational influence on children's pro-environmental behaviors: Exploring the roles of psychological richness and mindful parenting

Abstract

Psychological richness, as one of the significant orientations in positive psychology, has received widespread attention. Despite findings indicating that adults' psychological richness significantly predicts pro-environmental behaviors, there is currently no research examining its potential involvement in the intergenerational transmission of environmental attitudes. To fill this gap, this study focuses on the dimension of parents' psychological richness, aiming to explore the positive antecedents of children's pro-environmental behaviors. We proposed and tested a chain mediation model to explore how mindful parenting and children's perceptions of parental behavior mediate the association between parental psychological richness and children's pro-environmental behaviors. This study encompasses 293 families from China, totaling 586 participants, with each family comprising one child and one primary caregiver. Parents and their children completed the Psychological Richness Scale, Mindful Parenting Scale, Perceived Parental Action Questionnaire, and Children's Pro-environmental Behaviors Scale, respectively. The results show that parental psychological richness is positively correlated with children's pro-environmental behaviors, and both mindful parenting and perceptions of parental action mediated this relationship. These findings extend the understanding of the intergenerational influence between parental psychological richness and children's pro-environmental behaviors, highlighting the potential importance of mindful parenting and children's perceptions of parental action in improving children's pro-environmental behaviors.