Research on the factors influencing college students’ energy-use behavior in dormitories: group-level factors and time factors

Promoting energy-saving behavior among college students in dormitories is conducive to improving the energy efficiency of college buildings. As students in the same dormitory need to share the energy-using equipment and expenses, they will inevitably influence each other by their energy-use behaviors, and this interaction process will gradually reach a certain stable state with the passing of the time spent with roommates. However, the existing research on the influencing factors of energy-use behaviors often focuses on individual subjective characteristics while overlooking the influence of group and time factors. Therefore, this paper incorporates interpersonal relationship and group identity into the theory of planned behavior, and considers the time spent with roommates as the moderating variable to build a model of factors influencing college students’ energy-use behaviors in their dormitories. Empirical data were collected by a questionnaire survey with 768 respondents, and generalized ordered logit regression was used to analyze the research model. The results reveal that the factors that influence students’ energy-use behaviors will change with the time spent with roommates. When the time spent with roommates is 0–1 year, interpersonal relationships, group identity, comfort, individual norms, and environmental concerns are significant influences. When the time spent with roommates is 1–2 years, environmental concerns will no longer have an effect; however, energy-use costs and energy-use habits will be added. When the time spent with roommates is 2–3 years, interpersonal relationships, individual norms, group identity, and energy-use costs will no longer have any influence, but subjective norm will be added.