THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL IDENTITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDE ON ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM

ABSTRACT This study discusses how social identity and environmental attitude influence environmental activism among undergraduate students of Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, in Nigeria. These aims were to determine the connection between social identity and environmental activism and to examine how environmental attitudes moderate activism, the mediating role of social identity in the attitude-activism relationship, and the influence of the sociocultural factors on such relationships. The quantitative correlational research design was utilised, and the sample size was 435 students chosen by the stratified random sampling in order to represent them by different faculties and academic levels. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather the data, and it included the measured social identity, environmental attitudes, and involvement in environmental activism. It has been found that social identity and environmental attitudes are significant predictors of environmental activism. In particular, the relationships between social identity and activism were moderately positive (r = 0.52, p < 0.001), as well as between environmental attitude and activism (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). It has turned out that social identity mediated the connection between environmental attitudes and activism and had a strong indirect influence (b = 0.19, p < 0.001). It was discovered that sociocultural factors (such as age, academic level, and faculty) moderated the strength of these relationships, with students aged 21-25 and academic level 300/400 showing more alignment of identity and attitude, and activism. It is found that social identity and environmental attitudes are essential in facilitating environmental activism, and social identity plays a critical role in ensuring that pro-environmental attitudes are transformed into activism. The study suggests that universities and environmental agencies should organise programmes that would instil a feeling of collective identity with regard to sustainability objectives, place environmental material in various academic programmes, and promote involvement in collective environmental endeavours. Moreover, using digital platforms to advocate the environmental causes and address certain groups of students according to their sociocultural backgrounds can create more engagement and activism among young people.