Institutional Support and Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Mediating Role of Ecological Civilization Conception and Its Reciprocal Associations—Evidence from Inner Mongolia

Ecological civilization education can advance learners from knowledge acquisition to behavioral internalization, yet a persistent “knowing–doing gap” remains rooted in the disconnection between cognition and action. This study proposes an Institution–Conception–Behavior (ICB) model and examines how institutional support is associated with university students’ pro-environmental behavior, mediated by ecological civilization conception. A dual-path model integrating association and bidirectional association pathways was tested using structural equation modeling with bootstrap analysis (N = 500). Data were collected from two universities in Inner Mongolia, a region designated as China’s northern ecological security barrier. The results indicate that institutional support is positively associated with pro-environmental behavior through the indirect role of ecological civilization conception (indirect effect = 0.309, 95% CI [0.296, 0.506]), while its direct association is non-significant. Pro-environmental behavior (β = 0.278, p < 0.001) and ecological civilization conception (β = 0.417, p < 0.001) are positively associated with institutional perception orientation. These findings are consistent with the view that ecological civilization conception may serve as an associational bridge between institutions and behavior, suggesting a pattern of mutual associations in which institutions are associated with conceptions, conceptions relate to behavior, and behavior is associated with institutional perception. This study provides empirical evidence for advancing ecological civilization education through institutional support and conceptual cultivation.