Sustainable Practices among Technical Education Students: Prior Participation, Habits, and Perceived Social Norms

Abstract

This study examines factors associated with the adoption of sustainable practices among technical education students in Fortaleza, Ceará, considering both profile variables and psychosocial mechanisms closer to action. The research employed a cross-sectional design and a quantitative approach, administering a questionnaire to 91 students selected by convenience sampling. The dependent variable was the adoption of sustainable practices, and the main predictors were prior participation in sustainability initiatives, time in program, habit, and perceived social norms. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Spearman correlations, OLS linear regressions with robust standard errors, and multicollinearity and residual diagnostics. The results indicated a moderate level of sustainable practice adoption and positive associations between adoption, habit, and perceived social norms. Within the limits of a local, cross-sectional, non-probabilistic study, the findings suggest that automated routines and perceived social influence are more consistently associated with variation in sustainable practice adoption than isolated profile variables, with cautious implications for school-based interventions emphasizing behavioral repetition and normative salience.