Village and Development

Village and Development

Investigating the role of environmental knowledge in forming rural facilitator women’s pro-environmental behaviors of the Organization Agriculture-Jahad of Qom province

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
S. Karimi 1
F. Alitavakoli 2
1 Associate professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Faculty of Agriculture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran. (skarimi@basu.ac.ir)
2 PhD Student of Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.
10.30490/rvt.2021.352099.1279
Abstract
Though it is important, insufficient attention has been paid to explore rural facilitator women’s pro-environmental behaviors and understand its formation process. To narrow the research gap, this research built a theoretical research model by adding environmental knowledge into the theory of planned behavior to explore rural facilitator women’s pro-environmental behaviors. Data have been collected through questionnaire from 120 rural female facilitators in the Organization Agriculture-Jahad of Qom province, who were studied by the complete enumeration method. Validity of the questionnaire was approved based on the opinions of faculty members at Bu-Ali Sina University. The reliability of the research instrument was determined using Cronbach's alpha coefficients. The results of structural equation modelling indicated that subjective norms and environmental attitude were positively and significantly related to pro-environmental intentions. In addition, pro-environmental intentions and perceived behavioral control were found to be significantly associated with pro-environmental behaviors. The results revealed that environmental knowledge was positively related to subjective norms, environmental attitude, perceived behavioral control and pro-environmental intentions. It is, therefore, concluded that environmental knowledge plays an important role in determining pro-environmental intentions and behaviors among rural facilitator women.
Keywords
Environmental Knowledge
Theory of Planned Behavior
Pro-environmental Behaviors
Rural Female Facilitators
Qom Province
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