Reducing Personal Clothing Consumption: A Cross-cultural Validation of the Comprehensive Action Determination Model

Clothing production has high impacts on the environment, with a reduction in the consumption of clothes providing a contribution towards urgently needed sustainable production and consumption. The present study employs the comprehensive action determination model (CADM) to identify psychological determinants associated with reduced clothing consumption across five different countries. In two studies (n=5,185) we sought to identify the constructs most strongly related to intentions to reduce clothing consumption and to reduction behavior. Results showed that normative constructs were most strongly related to intentions to reduce consumption. Intentions were only weakly negatively related to the number of items bought in a two-week period. As hypothesized, structural paths were equal across countries. Implications for intervention development are discussed.