Behavioral Response Analysis of Rural Residents’ Living Waste Classification: Evidence from Jiangsu, China

Maximizing rural residents’ primary role in domestic waste sorting and management is critical to improving the rural living environment and advancing socioeconomic development. This study aims to analyze the entire process of domestic waste sorting by rural residents using sample data from 2420 rural households surveyed in the 2021 China Land Economic Survey (CLES). Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study develops a research framework for analyzing the entire process of rural residents’ domestic waste-sorting behavior. It examines the inter-relationships among behavioral cognition, behavioral intention, and behavioral response and employs structural equation modeling (SEM) for empirical verification. The results demonstrate that subjective norms, classification attitudes, and perceived behavioral control exert statistically significant positive effects on both rural residents’ intention and behavioral responses toward domestic waste sorting. Moreover, sorting intention demonstrates a significant predictive effect on actual sorting behavior. This study further identifies a mediating role of sorting intention throughout the behavioral process, while potential correlations among subjective norm, behavioral attitude, and perceived behavioral control suggest additional mechanisms underlying rural residents’ waste-sorting responses that warrant further exploration.