Evaluating the Impact of Environmental Education on Ecologically Friendly Behavior of University Students in Pakistan: The Roles of Environmental Responsibility and Islamic Values

Abstract

With increasing global environmental problems, considerable evidence now suggests that environmental education can influence students’ ecologically friendly behavior significantly. Addressing increased environmental problems requires better understanding of the relations between focused and explicit environmental education, environmental responsibility, and religious values. The current study examined the relationship between environmental education and ecologically friendly behavior, utilizing insights from resource conservation theory. The relationship between the variables mentioned above was examined to determine the mediating effect of environmental responsibility and the moderating effect of Islamic values. Through a cross-sectional approach, data were gathered from 413 university students. The data were analyzed using analytical techniques such as “structural equation modeling” and “PROCESS.” The study’s findings support the predicted conceptual model, indicating that environmental education was positively related to environmentally friendly behavior. Furthermore, environmental responsibility partially mediated the relationship above, whereas Islamic values positively moderated the relationships between environmental education and ecologically friendly behavior as well as between environmental education and environmental responsibility. These findings emphasize the critical role of environmental education and Islamic values in comprehending the ecological behaviors of Muslim students.