The Effect of Potentially Groundwater-Contaminating Ecological Disaster on Adolescents’ Bottled Water Consumption and Perceived Risk to Use Tap Water

Abstract

We compared the extent to which a potentially groundwater-contaminating ecological disaster affected adolescents’ bottled water consumption and perceived risk to use tap water. The affected group consists of 221 adolescents (56.6% were girls, Mage = 15.44, SDage = 0.60), while the control group consisted of 156 adolescents (56.4% were girls, Mage = 15.50, SDage = 0.55). The Comprehensive Action Determination Model that explains pro-environmental actions was used as a basis for the comparison of adolescents’ bottled water use, both on mean and model-path levels. Perceived risk of tap water use was compared among affected and control groups (i.e., quasi-experimental manipulation check). The affected group perceived tap water use as riskier than the control group, although the difference was marginal. The affected group also demonstrated significantly lower intention not to consume bottled water than the control. Interestingly, however, path-level comparisons indicated that affected adolescents were more effective in translating their perceived control over sources of clean drinking water into intention to consume tap water.