Authors
Mykolas Simas Poškus, Audra Balundė, Lina Jovarauskaitė, Goda Kaniušonytė, Rita Žukauskienė
Publication date
2021/5/21
Journal
Sustainability
Volume
13
Issue
11
Pages
5811
Publisher
MDPI
Description
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.
Total citations
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