Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP MODEL OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AFFECTING GREEN CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR

Sapphasit Kaewhao and Nanthaporn Sutthiphapa

Abstract

The populations were 12,422 undergraduate students of Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University of the first semester of 2021. The Multi-Stage Random Sampling technique was used to collect the sample for 400 undergraduate students. The questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Structural Equation model (SEM) was used for model verification. The objective of research was to develop the causal relationship model of environmental education affecting to green consumption behavior through inspiration of public consciousness. The results revealed that when considering on confirmatory factors of exogenous variable of Environmental Education (EE) was able to explain the variation of endogenous factors of Inspiration of Public Consciousness (IPC) to cause Green Consumption Behavior (GCB) with 98.00 percents as the following in equation (1). GCB = 0.88*IPC + 0.25*EE … (1) (R2 = 0.98) Equation (1) factors that had the most effect to Green Consumption Behavior (GCB) was Inspiration of Public Consciousness (IPC) with effect of 0.90, and subsequence was Environmental Education (EE) with effect of 0.25. These were able to explain the variation of Green Consumption Behavior (GCB) with 98.00 percents. Moreover, confirmatory factors Environmental Education (EE) was able to explain the variation of confirmatory factors of Inspiration of Public Consciousness (IPC) with 87.00 percents. Therefore, the equation can be written as the following equation (2).IPC = 0.90*EE … (2) (R2 = 0.87) 4) Considering on Chi-Square value/df was 1.804 that was lesser than 5, therefore it was accepted that hypothetical model of research was congruent to empirical data. Moreover, it was considered on other statistical values to verify the congruence that were Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) and Adjust Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) were 0.97 and 0.93 respectively (GFI > 0.90 and AGFI > 0.90), RMSEA <0.05 (0.045), RMR <0.05 (0.014), and critical number = 306.66 which was more than 200. It indicated that model was congruent to empirical data.