The Relationship Between University Students’ Ecological Citizenship and Ecological Literacy: Examining the Mediating Role of Eco-Anxiety

This study examined the relationships among ecological citizenship, ecological literacy, and eco-anxiety among university students and tested a theory-informed, non-causal statistical model in which ecological citizenship was specified as the predictor, eco-anxiety as the intervening variable, and ecological literacy as the outcome. A cross-sectional correlational design was used. Data were collected from 218 undergraduate students at one public university in Türkiye through convenience sampling. Participants completed a demographic information form, the Eco-Anxiety Scale, the Ecological Literacy Scale, and the Ecological Citizenship Scale. Analyses included descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlations, and a regression-based indirect-effect analysis using 5000 bootstrap resamples and 95% confidence intervals. The total scores did not differ significantly by age. Ecological literacy was higher among female students, ecological citizenship differed by year of study, and all three constructs differed across departments. Eco-anxiety was positively correlated with ecological literacy (r = 0.304) and ecological citizenship (r = 0.344), while ecological citizenship was strongly correlated with ecological literacy (r = 0.675). In the specified model, the direct association between ecological citizenship and ecological literacy remained significant after eco-anxiety was included (B = 0.750, 95% CI [0.628, 0.871], p < 0.001). The bootstrapped indirect association through eco-anxiety was not significant (B = 0.032, 95% CI [−0.009, 0.092]). Thus, eco-anxiety was associated with both focal constructs but did not statistically account for their relationship. Because the data were cross-sectional, the ordering should be interpreted as a theory-informed statistical specification rather than evidence of temporal or causal mediation.