Sufficient Mind, Psychological Characteristics, and Situations Predicting Sufficiency-Economy Behavior of Youths: An Analysis of Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

This research aimed to study direct and indirect effects of sufficient mind, psychological characteristics, situational factors, and psychological-situational characteristics on sufficiency-economy behavior of youths. The samples of this study were 600 youths living in the target communities. Psychological characteristics consisted of future-oriented and self-control traits, internal locus of control, and achievement motivation. Sufficient mind included perception of virtue. Situational factors consisted of norms, lessons learned from other people, and parenting with love, support, and reason. Psychological-situational characteristics comprised attitudes towards sufficiency-economy behavior. Behavioral factors included volunteer behavior, cultural-inheritance behavior, environmental-conservation behavior, and self-sufficient behavior. After analyzing direct, indirect, and total effects of all causal factors, the results suggested that psychological-situational characteristics and sufficient mind had a direct positive effect on sufficiency-economy behavior. These causal factors jointly explained 49% of the variance of sufficiency-economy behavior. In addition, psychological characteristics and situational factors were found to indirectly affect sufficiency-economy behavior through psychological-situational characteristics. They could jointly explained 68% of the variance.