Perceived Need for Green Open Space Mediates Biological Literacy and Critical-Thinking’s Influence on Pro-Environmental Youth Activism

Ahmad Sulaiman (Faculty of Psychology, University of Muhammadiyah Malang)
Zainul Anwar (Faculty of Psychology, University of Muhammadiyah Malang)
Sakinah Nur Rokhmah (Faculty of Psychology, University of Muhammadiyah Malang)

International Journal of Post-Axial: Futuristic Teaching and Learning
Vol. 4 No. 3 September 2026: International Journal of Post-Axial

Environmental degradation in Indonesia has intensified calls for youth-led environmental activism, yet the mechanisms translating students' scientific knowledge and thinking dispositions into civic action remain underexamined. This study proposes a mediation model in which biological literacy and critical thinking disposition predict environmental youth activism through perceived need for green open space. Using data (N = 230) of Muslim university students aged 17-23, domiciled in Malang, East Java, but originating from diverse Indonesian regions, the data satisfied assumptions of normality, non-multicollinearity, and homoscedasticity. Bootstrapped mediation analyses (5,000 resamples) showed that biological literacy and critical thinking disposition both significantly predicted perceived need for green open space, which significantly predicted activism; indirect effects were significant for both predictors, with near-full mediation for biological literacy and partial mediation for critical thinking disposition. Findings offer a theory-grounded, testable framework linking cognitive-epistemic resources, green-space appraisal, and civic environmentalism among Indonesian Muslim youth.