Determinants of adolescents’ pro-sustainable behavior: a systematic literature review using PRISMA

Abstract

Climate change is a serious contemporary issue around the world. Adolescents are mostly affected due to climate change. Thus, they are expected to behave in an environmentally appropriate manner, which requires the identification of factors influencing pro-sustainable behavior/pro-environmental behavior. The literature offers a wide range of factors influencing adolescents’ pro-sustainable behavior; nonetheless, these factors are not provided with some common themes. Furthermore, no study integrates dispersed research of the area with a comprehensive systematic review. With this consideration, a systematic review was carried out to find comprehensive factors influencing the pro-sustainable behavior of adolescents. For the review, all 21 interdisciplinary studies on factors influencing adolescents' ecological behavior, published between 2010 and 2023 and indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the number of studies in the area increased after 2020, especially in developed countries, and most studies utilized quantitative research methods. The identified key factors influencing adolescents’ pro-environmental behavior are categorized into demographic, internal, and external factors. The findings can be helpful for future researchers to have rigorous discourse on the issue and expand the research in developing countries using mixed methods research. The policy maker can use findings to motivate adolescents to participate in climate change mitigation.