Pathways to Environmental Activism Across Time and Place

This paper tests a model of pathways to environmental activism using three waves of data from the International Social Survey Program.  Given expectations from the theory of planned behavior and value-belief-norm theory, a path model is specified that examines how individual resources, knowledge, awareness of consequences, attitudes, willingness to contribute, and efficacy affect environmental activism.  The mediating effect of willingness to pay or make environmental contributions is investigated in detail given previous research.  Results demonstrate support for the model across the countries individually, as resources, awareness of consequences, and attitudes combined affect environmental activism.  Moreover, mediating tests were conducted that demonstrate a prominent yet not exclusive role of willingness to contribute in promoting activism across nations, uncovering relations that are masked in previous cross-national research. Results reveal that the model is robust over time and across places, with some exceptions, yielding insights for future comparative and cross-national studies.