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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1520675

Internet Usage and Environmental Governance Satisfaction in China: Environmental pollution perception as a mediator

Provisionally accepted
Xiaorui Huang Xiaorui Huang *
  • Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Public perception and satisfaction with environmental governance are critical for evaluating the effectiveness of national environmental policies and advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). This study examines the influences of different types of internet use influence residents' satisfaction with local environmental governance, emphasizing the mediating role of perceived environmental pollution. Grounded in expectancy-disconfirmation theory, this study retrieves data from 3,046 respondents in the 2021 Chinese Social Survey (CSS), and constructs ordinary least squares (OLS) and mediation effect models. Findings indicate that frequent internet use for browsing news (β = 0.019, s.e.=.006) and studying (β =0.020, s.e.=.006) is positively associated with greater satisfaction with environmental governance. However, environmental pollution perception functions as a suppressing mediator in the association of internet use for news browsing (effect = -0.004, s.e.=.001) and studying (effect=-0.004, s.e.=.001), with environmental governance satisfaction (EGS). This study is the first to apply expectancydisconfirmation theory to explore public satisfaction with environmental governance. The findings provide novel insights into the role of internet usage in shaping perceptions of environmental management and offer practical recommendation for leveraging digital engagement to enhance EGS among the public.

    Keywords: environmental governance, Environmental pollution perception, Expectancydisconfirmation theory, Internet usage, Mediation analysis

    Received: 02 Nov 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xiaorui Huang, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.