Psychosocial predictors of proactive environmental behavior: A hierarchical model of the contribution of personal resources and environmental self-efficacy

The aim of this study was to identify key psychosocial determinants of proactive environmental behavior among adolescents using a hierarchical model of predictors. The study was conducted on a convenience sample of N = 260 participants of both genders, aged 18 to 65 (M = 30.46, SD = 9.05). A hierarchical regression analysis in four steps was applied to examine the contribution of demographic factors (gender and age), subjective quality of life, anticipated pessimism, and environmental self-efficacy. The final model explains 31% of the variance in proactive environmental behavior. The introduction of environmental self-efficacy in the final step contributed an additional 19% of explained variance, distinguishing this variable as the strongest individual predictor (β = 0.29, p ≤ 0.01). Among demographic factors, gender showed a stable contribution (β = -0.20, p ≤ 0.05), while age demonstrated increasing significance (β = 0.18, p ≤ 0.05). Quality of life emerged as a stable positive predictor (β = 0.16, p ≤ 0.05), whereas anticipated pessimism showed a statistically negligible contribution (β = 0.03, p ≥ 0.05). The findings indicate that belief in one's own effectiveness (self-efficacy) is a significantly stronger driver of proactivity than environmental concern or pessimism about the future. The results emphasize the importance of strengthening personal psychological resources and well-being in promoting environmental activism.