Investigating the link between place attachment, civic engagement, and pro-environmental behaviors

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the impact of place attachment and civic engagement on pro-environmental behavior, with place attachment being examined from an individual perspective, and civic engagement being examined from a social perspective. Therefore, in addition to assessing the degree of place attachment, we also examined its effect on residents’ civic engagement and pro-environmental behavior the study was conducted using a questionnaire to collect data from people over 18 years of age living in the Eram neighborhood, with 240 responses being used for analysis after removing 25 incomplete or biased answers. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that place attachment is a second-order construct composed of place dependence, place identity, emotional attachment, and social attachment, and that pro-environmental behavior is a second-order factor composed of household behavior, information seeking, and transportation. The results showed that all four dimensions of place attachment have good means and that place attachment and civic engagement positively affect pro-environmental behavior. The Sobel test confirms that the effect of place attachment on pro-environmental behavior is significant through the mediation of civic engagement. This study confirms that feeling attached to the local area encourages participating in voluntary social activities in line with pro-environmental behaviors.