This paper aims to investigate the influence of two types of parental norms, descriptive and injunctive, on young adults' sustainable attitudes and sustainable household capability through the application of the Knowledge-Attitude-Behaviour (KAB) theory. Empirical research was conducted by an online questionnaire on a sample of 356 young adults in Croatia aged 18 to 28. The results confirmed that young adults had high levels of sustainable knowledge and attitudes. They exhibited a high tendency towards saving water and energy, and a low tendency towards sustainable and green household purchases and recycling and reusing as integral practices of sustainable household capability. The results proved the adequacy of the KAB theory in the context of sustainable knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour, affirming the theory's assumptions in terms of sustainable household capability among young adults. The results also confirmed that young adults' sustainable knowledge had a strong significant positive impact on sustainable attitudes, that sustainable attitudes had a significant positive impact on sustainable behaviour in the context of sustainable household capability, and that sustainable knowledge had an indirect significant positive impact on sustainable behaviour in the context of sustainable household capability. Considering parental norms, the results confirmed a significant positive impact of descriptive parental norms related to sustainable parental behaviour on the practices constituting sustainable household capability of young adults. At the same time, injunctive parental norms were shown to have a limited impact on both attitudes and behaviours in the context of capability. Given that previous research brought contradictory and inconclusive findings that lead to misinterpretation in the research field, the results bring a comprehensive and transparent understanding and an overview of sustainable behaviour among young adults in the context of their sustainable household capability.
Keywords: Croatia; Parental norms; Sustainable household capability; Young adults.
© 2024 The Author(s).