Influence of Sociodemographics and Environmental Attitudes on General Responsible Environmental Behavior among Recreational Boaters

This study examined predictors of self-reported general responsible environmental behavior (GREB) among recreational boaters in Maryland in 1992. Findings show a relationship between cognitive (professed knowledge of environmental issues), affective (environmental concern), and conative (verbal commitment) components of attitudes with pro-environmental behavior. Multiple regression results show that two attitudinal variables explained 23.8% of total variance in GREB. Verbal commitment was the strongest predictor, followed by professed knowledge of environmental issues. Environmental concern was moderately correlated with GREB but did not contribute significantly to the regression model. When sociodemographics were added to the model, stand on political issues added another .2% to the variance explained. A path diagram (AMOS 4.01) was used to reexamine the GREB framework. Results model those of the stepwise regression procedures (23% variance explained) in SPSS, and the path diagram simplifies interpretation of structural relationships among variables in a regression equation.