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In researching into workplace pro-environmental behaviors, there is sparse evidence on self-construals with dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE), particularly among university employees. To fill this gap, the purpose of the study is to investigate the associations of self-construals with eco-civic engagement, eco-helping and eco-initiatives among 256 (men = 139 and women = 117) employees of a University.

Through the use of cross-sectional survey method, data were collected to investigate theoretically deduced hypotheses. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses.

Results showed that independent self-construal was positively associated with eco-civic engagement, β = 0.25, t = 2.55, p < 0.01, eco-helping, β = 0.42, t = 4.51, p < 0.01 and eco-initiatives, β = 0.36, t = 3.73, p < 0.01, whereas interdependent self-construal had significant positive relationship with eco-civic engagement only, β = 0.27, t = 2.73, p < 0.01.

Future research can manipulate self-construal and collect observational data on eco-civic engagement, eco-helping and eco-initiatives. The findings should be further developed using larger samples among other higher education institutions (HEIs).

This study provides a basis that self-construction can influence OCBE, particularly, focusing on independence can drive eco-civic engagement, eco-helping and eco-initiatives while focusing on interdependence can motivate eco-civic engagement. The findings may guide future development of workplace environmental sustainability programs and policies to aid university managers, practitioners, organizers and promoters of environmental sustainability on the university campuses.

The findings contribute to environmental sustainability literature in HEIs by providing information on the usefulness of self-construal types in motivating employee participation in OCBE.

The joint influence of personality traits, age and gender on environmental citizenship behavior (ECB) is relatively unknown among youth. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the independent and joint influence of the Big Five traits, age and gender on the three dimensions of ECB of students in a Nigerian university community.

A quantitative cross-sectional survey was adopted to collect data from 290 students in a Nigerian university.

The findings show that personality traits of openness and agreeableness were more related with eco-initiatives and eco-helping. Likewise, traits of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness were more associated with eco-civic engagement. Age was also consistently associated with the three dimensions. The Big Five traits, age and gender also have joint influence on the dimensions of ECB.

This is a self-reported survey, which limits the ability to draw any firm conclusions regarding the causal relationship between the study variables. Future research needs to consider other methods suitable for establishing causal relationship.

The findings imply that knowing the associations of personality traits, age and gender with environmental actions can help organizers of environmental initiatives to target their recruitment messages toward youth who might be pre-disposed to taking environmental actions, and also consider alternative actions that might appeal to their counterparts.

The originality of this paper lies in combining personality traits, age and gender to gain a better understanding of the three dimensions of ECB in a student sample against monolithic approach of authors of previous studies.

Validated and reliable measure of littering attitude is lacking, therefore the purpose of this paper is to describe the development and psychometric evaluation of the littering attitude scale (LAS) as a new self-report measure to assess littering attitude.

The internal consistency reliability and validity of LAS were investigated in a cross-sectional survey of 1,360 urban residents in a South-western State in Nigeria. Data were analysed using reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling.

Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis suggested a 15-item scale with one general underlying factor. Reliability analysis score for the 15-item scale revealed a Cronbach α coefficient of 0.87. The scores of the LAS items indicated good internal consistency and construct validity consistent with the principles of scale development. The scale also showed a good fit in confirmatory factor analysis for the sample.

The aims of the study related to determining the validity, appropriateness, utility and feasibility of LAS were achieved. However, further studies should be done to validate the scale in other cultural settings.

The findings suggested that LAS captures littering attitude and holds promise as a useful tool to conduct environmental audit by scholars, practitioners, and non-governmental organisations who are interested in the social and behavioural management of environmental quality.

This is the first scale to measure littering attitude. The scale can be used by practitioners and researchers to conduct benchmarking studies on littering attitude.