Normative Influences on Adolescents’ Self

Pro-environmental behavioral patterns are influenced by relevant others’ actions and expectations. Studies about the intergenerational transmission of environmentalism have demonstrated that parents play a major role in their children’s pro-environmental actions. However, little is known about how other social agents may shape youth’s environmentalism. This cross-sectional study concentrates on the role that parents and peers have in the regulation of 12- to 19-year-olds’ pro-environmental behaviors. We also consider the common response bias effect by examining the associations between parents, peers, and adolescents’ pro-environmentalism in two independent data sets. Data Set 1 (N = 330) includes adolescents’ perceptions of relevant others’ behaviors. Data Set 2 (N = 152) includes relevant others’ self-reported pro-environmental behavior. Our results show that parents’ and peers’ descriptive and injunctive norms have a direct effect on adolescents’ pro-environmental behavior and an indirect one, through personal norms. Adolescents seem to be accurate in the perception of their close ones’ environmental actions