Uncovering sustainability awareness profiles in higher education: A person-centered approach
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Alima K. Pirniyazova 1 * , Iskender K. Pirniyazov 2 , Zulfiya K. Ktaybekova 3 , Bazargul R. Kurbanbaeva 1 , Saodat Z. Shynnazarova 1 , Úmitay A. Umarova 1
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1 Department of Karakalpak Language, Nukus State Pedagogical Institute, Nukus, UZBEKISTAN2 Department of Pedagogy, Psychology and Education Methods, Pedagogical Skill Center of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Nukus, UZBEKISTAN3 Department of the Karakalpak Literature, Nukus State Pedagogical Institute, Nukus, UZBEKISTAN* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Sustainability awareness is generally treated as a single level to be raised, yet its components can vary independently of one another. This exploratory study identified subgroups of undergraduate students whose awareness follows distinct patterns and examined how those subgroups relate to demographic characteristics. Data were collected through an online survey from 597 undergraduate students across five faculties, on five dimensions covering personal knowledge and efficacy, educational experience, individual practices and engagement, institutional perception, and global concerns and ethics. The five-dimension structure was supported by exploratory structural equation modeling, with a scaled Chi-square of 268.02 on 185 degrees of freedom, CFI = .991 and RMSEA = .027, and scalar measurement invariance held across gender, age group, faculty, academic year and level of first exposure for the specifications tested. Latent profile analysis, estimated from multiple starting values after the default initialization was found to return to a local optimum, identified four profiles: moderate awareness (37.7%), high comprehensive awareness (36.7%), low practices and engagement (13.2%), and low personal knowledge (12.4%). Profile membership showed no association of practical size with any demographic variable, and effects of medium size were excluded by equivalence testing. Sustainability awareness is therefore distributed in qualitatively distinct patterns that do not follow conventional demographic lines. Because items were administered in a fixed order within visually separated blocks, construct and presentation format are confounded, and both the instrument and the profile structure require independent replication with randomized item order before they can be regarded as established.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 22, Issue 11, November 2026, Article No: em2953

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/19677

Publication date: 27 Oct 2026

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