The Longitudinal Relationships Between Sense of Place and Pro-Environmental Behavioral Tendencies of Adolescents: Evidence from Chinese Secondary School Students

To examine the longitudinal and reciprocal associations between adolescents’ sense of place and pro-environmental behavioral tendencies, this study employs a cross-lagged panel design to investigate the bidirectional relationship between these constructs. A total of 380 Chinese lower secondary school students completed the Environmental School Map task at two time points. Responses to the performance task were calibrated using a Many-Faceted Rasch Model (FACETS), and reciprocal longitudinal associations were examined using a cross-lagged panel model in Mplus. The results indicated that sense of place at Time 1 positively predicted pro-environmental behavioral tendencies at Time 2 (β = 0.177), while pro-environmental behavioral tendencies at Time 1 likewise positively predicted subsequent sense of place (β = 0.235). Further analysis using the cross-lagged panel model showed that both reciprocal associations remained significant after accounting for the temporal stability of each construct. Taken together, the findings provide evidence of a reciprocal longitudinal association between sense of place and pro-environmental behavioral tendencies during early adolescence and may have implications for school-based environmental education and place-based curriculum design.