Environment and Social Psychology

Purpose, identity, and sustainability: The role of didactic environments in higher education

Mehmet Recai Uygur

Department of Business Management and Marketing, Vilnius Business College,Vilnius, 08126,Lithuania

Gabija Skučaitė

Department of Business Management and Marketing, Vilnius Business College,Vilnius, 08126,Lithuania

Samson Abiodun Toye

Department of Business Management and Marketing, Vilnius Business College,Vilnius, 08126,Lithuania

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/esp.v11i1.4359

Keywords: Sustainable behavior; transpersonal purpose; spirituality/religiosity; political orientation; access to nature

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Abstract

This study examines the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and political orientation in university students and transpersonal learning and sustainable behavior; it also investigates how contextual experiences such as service-learning, sustainability courses, volunteering, organizational membership, and access to nature condition this relationship. Data from a cross-sectional online survey (N=534) conducted in Lithuania in November 2025 were used to create purpose (items 25–30; α=0.82) and behavior (items 49–61; α=0.91) indices were created; gender and income were controlled; z-transformed results were modeled in multiple regressions with HC3 robust errors. Religiosity alone did not produce a consistent main effect; however, the religiosity × service-learning interaction increased sustainable behavior. Access to nature expanded the pathway to behavior among liberal and conservative students; in contrast, the Green-Eco × service-learning and Liberal × volunteering interactions were negative. Non-binary participants reported higher purpose and behavior, while the income effect was largely insignificant. Findings suggest that identity effects translate into action through context, and that designing reflective service-learning and campus nature access together in higher education can strengthen sustainable practices (limitations: unlikely sample, cross-sectional design, multiple tests).

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