From online engagement to offline action: how social media environmental engagement shapes university students’ pro-environmental citizenship through intrinsic motivation and personal norms

IntroductionIn the context of intensifying global ecological crises, leveraging social media platforms to foster spontaneous pro-environmental behaviors among college students has become a critical issue in sustainability research. This study integrates self-determination theory and the value-belief-norm theory to construct a serial dual-mediator model, with environmental intrinsic motivation and environmental self-accountability as sequential mediators. It examines how social media environmenta