Developing and Evaluating a Cultural Model of Environmental Behavior in Iran: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study
Keywords:
environmental behavior; environmental culture; environmental education; environmental ethics; grounded theory; mixed methods; PLS-SEM; public participationAbstract
Environmental crises require not only technical and regulatory responses but also sustained changes in citizens’ values, norms, and everyday practices. This exploratory sequential mixed-methods study developed a culturally grounded model for addressing environmental threats in Iran and conducted a preliminary quantitative evaluation of selected model relationships. In the qualitative phase, academic and professional experts were recruited purposively and through snowball sampling, and semi-structured interviews were analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding. The resulting paradigmatic model identified environmental education, knowledge and awareness, and environmental values as causal conditions; environmental ethics and pro-environmental behavior as contextual conditions; government support as an intervening condition; environmental culture-building and public participation as strategies; and consolidation of environmental culture and effective environmental protection as outcomes. In the quantitative phase, 390 residents of District 12 of Tehran completed a questionnaire derived from the qualitative categories and relevant literature. Partial least squares structural equation modeling indicated positive associations of environmental education, environmental values, environmental knowledge and awareness, public participation, and pro-environmental behavior with the capacity to address environmental threats. The primary endogenous construct had R² = .847 and adjusted R² = .842; communality was .390 and redundancy was .330. Because the design was cross-sectional and complete coefficient-level results were not available for every proposed relationship, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary model support rather than causal confirmation. The study highlights the need to connect environmental education with ethical responsibility, participatory opportunities, and institutional support.
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