Determinants of Sustainable Food Purchasing Behaviour in the Context of the Aging Population in Poland

Aldona Podgórniak-Krzykacz; Justyna Przywojska

doi:10.2478/ceej-2025-0005

.blurhash-client-img { display: none !important; }

Determinants of Sustainable Food Purchasing Behaviour in the Context of the Aging Population in Poland

Central European Economic Journal

Volume 12 (2025): Issue 59 (January 2025)

By: Aldona Podgórniak-Krzykacz and Justyna Przywojska

Open Access

|Feb 2025

Figures & Tables

Research framework for sustainable food purchasing behaviour

Table 1.

Constructs, items, and references

Construct	Items	Scale	References
Pro-environmental self-identity (PESI)	- I think of myself as an environmental resource saver - I think of myself as an environmentally conscious person	scale of 1 to 5, where: 1 - definitely not, 2 - not, 3 - partially 4 - yes, 5 - definitely yes	(Whitmarsh & O'Neill, 2010)
Personal norms (PN)	- Pro-environmental human behaviour is now essential to save our planet - I am concerned that humanity will cause a lasting damage towards the environment - I feel a personal obligation to care for the environment	scale of 1 to 5, where: 1 - definitely not, 2 - not, 3 - partially 4 - yes, 5 - definitely yes	(Park & Ha, 2012)
Social norms (SN)	- People who are important to me urge me to care for the environment - Information about the state of the environment from the media makes me try to care for the environment in my daily life	scale of 1 to 5, where: 1 - definitely not, 2 - not, 3 - partially 4 - yes, 5 - definitely yes	(Park & Ha, 2012) (Rausch & Kopplin, 2021)
Perceived knowledge of environmentally friendly behaviour (PK)	I know how to reduce the negative environmental consequences of my behaviour	scale of 1 to 5, where: 1 - definitely not, 2 - not, 3 - partially 4 - yes, 5 - definitely yes	(Whitmarsh & O'Neill, 2010) (Rausch & Kopplin, 2021)
Perceived financial availability of organic food (PFA)	- In my opinion, organic food is more expensive than other products	scale of 1 to 4, where: 1 - definitely not, 2 - rather not, 3 - rather yes, 4 - definitely yes	(Rausch & Kopplin, 2021)

Table 2.

Sample structure

Variable		N	%
Gender	Men	171	42.6
	Women	230	57.4
Age	55–59	88	21.9
	60–64	82	20.4
	65–74	144	35.9
	75–84	61	15.2
	85+	26	6.5
Education	Primary	25	6.2
	Basic vocational	82	20.4
	Secondary	214	53.4
	Higher Bachelor/engineer	27	6.7
	Higher master's degree	53	13.2
Income	2000 PLN or lower	246	61.3
	2001–3000 PLN	115	28.7
	3001–4000 PLN	32	8.0
	over 4000 PLN	8	2.0

Factor structure of measurement model for sustainable food purchasing behaviour of people aged 55+

Table 3.

Descriptive statistics – sustainable food purchasing behaviour and its determinants

Statistics	F1	F2	F3	SFPB	PN	SN	PK	PESI	PFA
Min	1.00	1.00	1.13	1.38	10.00	6.00	3.00	6.00	1.00
Max	3.67	4.00	3.88	3.69	12.00	8.00	4.00	8.00	4.00
M	2.14	2.45	2.42	2.36	11.49	7.43	3.82	7.48	2.95
Me	2.00	2.50	2.38	2.38	12.00	8.00	4.00	8.00	3.00
SD	0.48	0.70	0.47	0.37	1.92	1.35	0.68	1.21	0.75
S	−0.31	0.09	0.09	−0.01	−0.04	−0.05	−0.09	−0.03	−0.42
K	0.39	−0.36	−0.35	0.13	−0.30	−0.38	−0.24	−0.02	−0.02

[i] Notes: F1 - buying organic and healthy food, F2 - buying appropriate quantities of food to reduce food waste, F3 - packing purchased food in customers' own bags to avoid generating packaging waste, SFPB - sustainable food purchasing behaviour, PN - personal norms, SN - social norms, PK - perceived knowledge of environmentally friendly behaviour, PESI - pro-environmental self-identity, PFA - perceived financial availability of organic food, min – minimum, max – maximum, M – mean, Me – median, SD – standard deviation, S – skewness, K – kurtosis

Table 4.

Pearson's correlation between sustainable food purchasing behaviour and its determinants

		PN	SN	PK	PESI	PFA
F1	R	0.323	0.340	0.283	0.303	−0.002
	p	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	0.964
F2	R	0,093	0,026	0,013	0,081	0.050
	p	0,062	0,601	0,794	0,107	0.315
F3	R	0.300	0.305	0.265	0.283	0.056
	p	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	0.262
SFPB	R	0.360	0.349	0.297	0.336	0.058
	p	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	<0.001^**	0.247

[ii] Significance level: ^** p < 0.01

Table 5.

Sustainable food purchasing behaviour by income (PLN)

Scale	2000 or lower		2001–3000		3001–4000		over 4000		F(df)	p	Comments^a
Scale	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	F(df)	p	Comments^a
F1	2.10	0.51	2.21	0.44	2.14	0.44	2.29	0.21	F(3; 150) = 2.621	0.053^b	X
F2	2.38	0.68	2.61	0.72	2.55	0.72	2.06	0.56	F(3; 397) = 3.957	0.008^**	2000 or lower < 2001–3000 (p = 0.034)
F3	2.43	0.49	2.43	0.45	2.36	0.48	2.19	0.38	F(3; 397) = 0.890	0.446	X
SFPB	2.35	0.38	2.41	0.34	2.34	0.38	2.19	0.29	F(3; 397) = 1.275	0.282	X

Notes: F1 – buying organic and healthy food, F2 – buying appropriate quantities of food to reduce food waste, F3 – packing purchased food in customers' own bags to avoid generating packaging waste, SFPB – sustainable food purchasing behaviour

a results of post-hoc test (Sidak test),

b probability in the Brown-Forsythe test

{ label (or @symbol) needed for fn[@id='j_ceej-2025-0005_tfn_007'] } Significance level: ^** p < 0.01

Table 6.

Sustainable food purchasing behaviour by gender

Scale	Men		Women		F(df)	P
Scale	M	SD	M	SD	F(df)	P
F1	2.05	0.43	2.21	0.51	F(1; 393.2) = 12.094^a	0.001^**
F2	2.41	0.69	2.48	0.70	F(1; 399) = 1.234	0.267
F3	2.33	0.47	2.49	0.47	F(1; 399) = 10.602	0.001^**
SFPB	2.28	0.34	2.42	0.38	F(1; 399) = 15.361	<0.001^**

Note: F1 – buying organic and healthy food, F2 – buying appropriate quantities of food to reduce food waste, F3 – packing purchased food in customers' own bags to avoid generating packaging waste, SFPB – sustainable food purchasing behaviour

a probability in the Brown-Forsythe test

{ label (or @symbol) needed for fn[@id='j_ceej-2025-0005_tfn_010'] } Significance level: ^** p < 0.01

Table 7.

Determinants of sustainable food purchasing behaviour of people aged 55+ – linear regression results

	B	Beta	t	p	VIF	ANOVA	R²
Dependent variable: SFPB (model 1)
Const	1.411		12.287	<0.001^**		F(3; 397) = 26.11 p < 0.001^**	0.165
PN	0.043	0.222	3.581	<0.001^**	1.828
PESI	0.053	0.173	2.810	0.005^**	1.804
Gender	0.104	0.139	2.986	0.003^**	1.026
Dependent variable: F1 (model 2)
Const	1.014		5.944	<0.001^**		F(4; 397) = 22.29 p < 0.001^**	0.144
SN	0.084	0.232	3.947	<0.001^**	1.614
PESI	0.058	0.148	2.522	0.012^**	1.603
Gender	0.117	0.108	2.281	0.023^**	1.038
Dependent variable: F3 (model 3)
Const	1.407		9.542	<0.001^**		F(1; 397) = 18.29 p < 0.001^**	0.121
SN	0.069	0.198	3.306	0.001^**	1.613	F(1; 397) = 18.29 p < 0.001^**
PESI	0.113	0.149	2.503	0.013^**	1.603
Gender	0.058	0.118	2.494	0.013^**	1.019

[i] Notes: F1 – buying organic and healthy food, F3 – packing purchased food in customers' own bags to avoid generating packaging waste, SFPB – sustainable food purchasing behaviour, PN – personal norms, SN – social norms, PESI – pro-environmental self-identity

[ii] B – regression coefficient, Beta – standardized regression coefficient, t – t-statistics, VIF – variance inflation factor, ANOVA – significance test for coefficient of determination, R² – coefficient of determination

Predictors of sustainable food purchasing behaviour of people aged 55+

Framework for Shaping Sustainable Food Purchasing Behaviours of Silver Consumers at Local Level

References

Authors

Metrics

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ceej-2025-0005 | Journal eISSN: 2543-6821 | Journal ISSN: 2544-9001

Journal RSS Feed

Language: English

Page range: 66 - 84

Published on: Feb 26, 2025

Published by: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

sustainable consumption,

sustainable food purchasing,

silver consumers,

determinants of green purchase behaviour,

pro-environmental behaviour

JEL:

D91,

J14,

Q59

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Economic theory, systems and structures,

Microeconomics,

Macroeconomics,

Economic policy

© 2025 Aldona Podgórniak-Krzykacz, Justyna Przywojska, published by Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 12 (2025): Issue 59 (January 2025)

Determinants of Sustainable Food Purchasing Behaviour in the Context of the Aging Population in Poland

Figures & Tables

Figure 1.

Table 1.

Table 2.

Figure 2.

Table 3.

Table 4.

Table 5.

Table 6.

Table 7.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Paradigm

My account