Environmental Behavior Among Russian Youth: The Role of Self-direction and Environmental Concern

Previous research that has tried to identify the personal values that best explain variance in pro-environmental attitudes tended to focus on biospheric and universalism values. This paper examines the importance of self-direction as a value underlying young people’s inclination to adopt pro-environmental behaviors and environmental activism. We expect that individuals who emphasize a self-direction value, which fosters creativity, motivates innovation, and promotes coping with challenges, are likely to respond in more self-directed and autonomous ways to emerging environmental practices. We analyze a sample of 600 university students surveyed in Moscow and find that biospheric and self-direction values are associated with environmental behavior and activism. Beyond the direct effect of self-direction value on pro-environmental behaviors and environmental activism we also observe a moderation effect of self-direction on the association between concern and environmental behavior. We discuss the implications of our findings for encouraging environmental action in specific contexts, similar to the one depicted in our sample.