Measuring the political cost of environmental problems (PCEP): a scale development and validation

Abstract With the improvement of people’s living standards and the awakening of environmental rights awareness, pollution and mass environmental incidents have become the focus of public attention. Using grounded theory analysis in qualitative research and multivariate statistical technology in quantitative research, taking residents and public officials of Shijiazhuang, Tangshan and Heng Shui as the research objects, Study 1 has defined the concept of the political cost of environmental problems (PCEP) and has constructed the PCEP scale by using the methods of interview and questionnaire survey, which provided sufficient theoretical explanation and empirical support for the research on the political cost of environmental problems. Study 2 has explored the relationship between PCEP and the environment-friendly behaviors, verified the applicability of the scale, and found the institutional PCEP, the organizational PCEP, the social PCEP, and the mass basic PCEP all have a positive impact on environment-friendly behaviors.