Modeling the structural interdependence of youth sustainability competencies using UNESCO’s key competency framework

This study develops and provides initial psychometric support for a self-report instrument assessing youths’ self-perceived sustainability competencies and examines their structural interrelationships using United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) key competency framework as an integrative heuristic. Rather than proposing a new action competence construct, the study investigates how reflective, cognitive, social, and action-oriented competency perceptions are configurationally related within an analytical model. Guided by competence theory, transformative learning, and action competence scholarship, the study employed a two-stage quantitative design. In Stage 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the instrument’s internal structure, reliability, and construct validity based on indicators derived from UNESCO’s competency descriptors. In Stage 2, partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to survey data from senior high school and university students in southern Taiwan to examine associations among self-perceived sustainability competencies within an awareness-cognition-action configuration. The findings provide preliminary support for an eight-factor structure, indicating that the competency domains are empirically distinguishable and that the instrument can differentiate among UNESCO’s sustainability competencies within a self-report framework. The structural model shows that systems thinking and strategic competence serve as key mediating competencies linking reflective, awareness-related competencies to perceived action-oriented competencies, whereas normative competence demonstrates limited predictive influence. This pattern may reflect the value–action gap in sustainability education, as well as the difficulty of capturing normative competence through self-report measures. The study contributes by offering initial psychometric support for a UNESCO-aligned instrument and by showing that sustainability competencies may function as a relational system in youth education.