Sustainable family development: How changes in family life cycle influence household low-carbon use behavior through changing motivations

Abstract

Existing studies on low-carbon behavior mostly performed their analyses at the individual level, and limited studies of household consumption sustainability lacked a focus on the psychology processes underlying their behavior. Combining family life cycle theory and goal framing theory, the current study explored how changes in family characteristics caused by family life cycle affect their motivations leading to differences in their low-carbon use behavior. Confirming hypotheses, results showed significant differences in low-carbon use behavior across family life cycle stages. Also confirming our hypotheses, normative and gain motivation positively mediated the influence of family life cycle on low-carbon use behavior, while hedonistic motivation had a negative mediation effect. In addition, an important cultural factor (collectivism) was included in the model to explore its moderating effects and results showed that horizontal (but not vertical) collectivism plays a moderating role in the impact of the family life cycle on household's low-carbon use behavior.