Predicting environmental behaviors: The influence of self-determined motivation and information about perceived environmental health risks

The purpose of the present study is to examine the combined contribution of 2 predictors of environmental behaviors, self-determined motivation and in formation about a particular environmental issue (viz., perceived environme ntal health risks). The hypothesized model was tested with 761 participants from the general population using structural equation modeling. Self-deter mined motivation was found to predict both environmental behaviours and the tendency to seek information on health risks coming from 2 main sources (f ederal government agencies and public groups), which led to more confidence in those sources of information, in turn, confidence in the different sour ces of information was found to be significantly associated with perception s of environmental health risks. Finally these perceptions were also found to be predictors of environmental behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of 2 possible processes that could facilitate environmental behaviors.