Abstract

The present research comprised a first study on a group of 112 university students (92 women), and a two-wave (T1 and T2) prospective online survey conducted with 287 university students (219 women), with a time lag of one month. Through the first study ten behaviors of household food waste and ten aimed at avoiding it were identified, which were used in the second study to capture both past food wasting behavior at T1, and the target behavior of avoiding food waste at T2. A relation model rooted in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was hypothesized, extended with measures of past behavior, negative (e.g., regret, guilt), and positive (e.g., pride, happiness) anticipated emotions related to food-wasting or avoiding food waste. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that intention to avoid food waste was positively associated with attitude, perceived behavioral control, and negative emotions, all measured at T1. In turn, the behavior of avoiding food waste at T2 was positively related to intention and, negatively, to past food-wasting behavior. Then, it emerged that intention fully mediated the effects of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and negative emotions on the target behavior. The TPB extended model accounted for 77% of the intention variance at T1 and for 36% of the behavior variance at T2. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are presented and discussed.