Human–Environment Interaction in Urban Societies: The Role of Environmental Awareness and Community Engagement in Shaping Sustainable Behavior, Social Responsibility, and Well-Being

Abstract

This research focuses on human-environment interaction (HEI) in urban societies by exploring how environmental awareness (EA) and community engagement (CE) influence the behaviors of sustainable behavior (SB), social responsibility (SR) and well-being (WB). Although the need to bridge the gap between environmental concern and actual SB remains a major challenge in sustainability research, this study concentrates on key psychosocial factors which could account for the differences in people’s pro-environmental behaviour. Using social and environment theories on behavior, this study proposes and tests a framework that includes positive drivers (such as EA and CE) to understand their effects on SB, SR and overall WB. A survey was conducted with 324 urban residents in Jordan who have experienced recently environmental initiatives and community based activities. The results obtained from this study using PLS-SEM show that EA has a significant effect on SB as well as CE significantly affects both SR and WB. In addition, SB showed to have a strong predictive effect on SR, which positively affects individual WB partially mediated the effect of sustainable practices on WB outcomes. The results underscore the essential importance of awareness and CE as effective processes through which HEI achieves outcomes for sustainability. The study offers practical recommendations for policies and urban planning in Jordan to enhance community participation and environmental awareness, moving towards sustainable cities for a better quality of life.