Since 1978, China's rapid economic growth has also generated numerous environmental problems, which cause substantial economic losses, social conflict, and rising health costs. This requires us to examine the factors affecting attitudes and behaviors toward the environment among the Chinese. This study used data from 2003 General Social Survey in China to answer the following questions: Is the measurement of environmental concern in China different from in western societies? Will the selection of particular measure of environmental concern affect its relation to social-demographic variables? What are the effects of individual and community level variables on two types of environmental behaviors?The results showed that environmental concern in China includes four dimensions: economical trade off, pro-environmental behaviors, perceived locally environmental problems and NEP. However, the results are somewhat different from those in western societies. The analysis suggests that more attention should be paid to the selection of particular measure of environmental concern and demonstrates that it really makes a difference how environmental concern is measured. Our findings indicate that except for gender and income, the effects of other individual variables follow the same pattern as in the West. As for municipal level variables, our analysis demonstrates that the affluence hypothesis, which states that the level of national income per capita influences the level of environmental concern, is partially supported while the objective hypothesis, which argues that the rising of environmental concern is consequence of deteriorating objective environmental problems, is not fully supported here.This research provides some guidelines for future study of environmental concern and fills an important gap in the environmental attitudes and behaviors research in China.
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