Communication within the family is two-way; the process by which the older generation follows the younger generation in knowledge acquisition is called “post-metaphorical culture.” Zhou (2000) referred to “post-metaphorical culture” as “reverse socialization,” and used the term “cultural feedback” to describe the following phenomenon: “In the era of rapid social changes, the older generation has extensively absorbed culture from the younger generation” (Zhou, 2011). Based on the above study, it is easy to speculate that children's green perceptions may influence their parents' green travel behavior in families.

Much research has been carried out on green and low-carbon behavior, focusing on the impact that other people's green behavior has on an individual. Cialdini et al. (1990) found that other people's non-green behavior would lead to other individual's non-green behavior. Schultz et al. (2007) noticed that a stranger's green and low-carbon behavior would impact others. A more in-depth study by Meijers et al. (2019) confirms the positive effect that the green consumption behavior of friends or colleagues has on an individual's behavior. Griskevicius et al. (2012) showed that individuals can influence their behavior by observing the green and low-carbon behavior of others. It can be found that all of these studies explore the influence of members outside the household on the behavior of the residents themselves. Cakanlar et al. (2023) found there is an influence mechanism of green and low-carbon behavior between partners. At the same time, he also pointed out that few studies have explored the influence of green and low-carbon behavior of internal family members on individual behavior choices. Returning to the field of green travel research, researchers have used TPB, SCT, and other theories to predict many influencing factors when exploring green travel. In these studies, family structure or family members are often considered control variables. When discussing the influence of family heterogeneity on green travel behavior, Luo et al. (2022) pointed out that family size significantly impacts individual green travel behavior. Echeverría et al. (2022) found that different family situations could affect the green travel behavior of an individual. Furthermore, Yang et al. (2017) found a significant correlation between whether there were children in the family and whether residents had green travel behavior. This suggests that there may be intergenerational influences from children, within the family, on the green travel behavior of residents. Although previous studies have explored these topics from various perspectives, they have provided only limited insight into the mechanisms of mutual influence among family members, lacking a comprehensive analysis of intergenerational influence dynamics. Therefore, this study starts from an intergenerational perspective and explores how children's green perceptions affects their parent's choices.

Wang et al. (2022) pointed out that there is a transmission effect of green and low-carbon behavior between generations within the family. Singh et al. (2020) found that when children are more concerned about green and low-carbon behavior, their parents will have better environmental protection attitudes. However, children's objective knowledge of the environment does not influence their parents' green and low-carbon behavior. Jaime et al. (2023) argued that children's environmental education is not effective in improving their parents' green behavior. This suggests that children may not have an impact on their parents green and low-carbon behavior. The above differences may be attributed to different methods used by scholars for exploration. Therefore, this study adopts multiple methods to test the mechanism of trans-education effects on residents' green travel behavior. Today there is growing evidence that children's environmental education of their parents is effective in improving their parents' green and low-carbon behavior. Ding et al. (2024) verified that parent-child interactions are effective in facilitating the emergence of green and low-carbon behavior in families. In summary, scholars have explored the factors within the household that may influence residents' green travel behavior, but there is a lack of research on whether and how children can influence their parents' green travel behavior. According to social learning theory (Gao, 2000), observational learning positively affects behavioral change. When the older generation follows the younger generation in adopting green concepts, they may show a tendency toward green travel behavior. This study proposes the following hypothesis.

H1: Trans-education has a significant impact on green travel behavior.

In a related study on commitment as a variable, Ling et al. (2001) defined organizational commitment as an employee's attitude toward the organization and identified it as an important indicator of loyalty to a company. In this study, the commitment variable is expanded to the field of environmental behavior, and the concept of EPC is put forward. As a key indicator to test environmental loyalty, EPC reflects the individual's commitment to green behavior and environmental protection goals. This shows the positive psychological characteristics of individuals participating in environmental protection activities.

As Ling et al. (2012) pointed out, the commitment variable contains multiple dimensions. Our predecessors analyzed the psychological factors affecting green travel from multiple angles. Shi (2019) found that public environmental awareness can affect green travel behavior, while Khan (2023) focused on the positive impact of environmental attitudes on green travel behavior. Ru et al. (2018) confirmed the positive effect of ethical norms on individual green travel behavior intentions, and Si et al. (2020) affirmed the importance of moral norms. However, no research builds a unified psychological framework that summarizes the psychological variables of residents. The EPC variable is easy to divide into dimensions, helping to unify various influencing factors. Since the EPC comes from three areas: the individual's environmental emotion, interest exchange, and moral norms, the EPC is defined in three dimensions: the emotional commitment (EC), continuous commitment (CC), and normative commitment (NC) dimensions. EC refers to the public's emotional dependence on a good environment, their recognition of the value and goals of environmental protection behavior, and their willingness to achieve environmental goals. CC refers to the public's awareness of the potential losses caused by environmental degradation and the requirement of long-term action to protect the environment. NC reflects the public's obligation to protect the environment, that is, the social responsibility formed due to long-term social impacts and the public's commitment to protecting the environment. Overall, the level of EPC will interfere with individual behavioral choices. Based on the above analysis, this paper proposes the following hypotheses.

H2: EPC plays an intermediary role in the process of trans-education affecting green travel behavior.

H2a: Trans-education has a significant positive effect on EPC.

H2a-1: Trans-education has a significant positive effect on EC.

H2a-2: Trans-education has a significant positive effect on NC.

H2a-3: Trans-education has a significant positive effect on CC.

H2b: EPC has a significant positive effect on green travel behavior.

H2b-1: EC has a significant positive effect on green travel behavior.

H2b-2: NC has a significant positive effect on green travel behavior.

H2b-3: CC has a significant positive effect on green travel behavior.

Green travel behavior typically requires changes in daily transportation choices and travel patterns, requiring a shift in personal travel modes—a change that is often difficult to implement. Self-efficacy may influence the effectiveness of trans-education in promoting green travel behavior among residents. Self-efficacy refers to an individual's self-assessment of their ability to perform a particular behavior and achieve the desired outcome (Gao, 2000). Shehawy (2023) found that individuals with low self-efficacy, despite having a strong intention to engage in green behavior, may fail to exhibit such behavior. Similarly, Qin et al. (2024) observed that green self-efficacy moderates the relationship between future self-continuity and pro-environmental behavior in middle school students. However, this moderating effect was not significant among high school students. Trans-education transmits green knowledge from children to parents and may influence residents' green travel behavior, with self-efficacy acting as a moderating factor in this process. It can be inferred that, following the intergenerational transmission of green concepts, individuals' levels of self-efficacy will intervene in their choice of green travel behavior. Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H3: The direct predictive effect of trans-education on green travel behavior is moderated by self-efficacy.

In summary, this study proposes the theoretical model seen in Figure 1.

To confirm the causal relationship between trans-education and residents' green travel behavior, we invited 251 parent-child pairs to participate in a carefully designed field experiment. This experiment was aimed to prove our argument that there is a strong relationship between trans-education measures and the promotion of residents' green traveling behavior. This experiment aims to demonstrate our argument that there is a close relationship between cross educational measures and promoting residents' environmentally friendly travel behavior.

The reliability and validity of the formal questionnaire were tested using SPSS version 27.0, and the results are shown in Table 2. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of trans-education, EC, NC, CC, EPC, and self-efficacy are all >0.6, and the scale is reliable. This study strictly follows the procedure of scale development. We repeatedly discussed this with two management experts and made the scale corrections based on literature studies. Therefore, the scale has good content validity, and the main form of test in terms of construct validity is the KMO value. The results of Bartlett's spherical test are shown in Table 2. The KMO of each variable is >0.6, the chi-square of Bartlett's spheres is larger, and the results are statistically significant (Sig < 0.01), indicating that this scale is suitable for factor analysis.

The Pearson relationship between the resident's EPC, EC, CC, NC, self-efficacy, and trans-education is shown in Table 3, showing that resident's trans-education is positively correlated with their EPC, EC, CC, and NC at the 0.01% significance level, i.e., the more trans-education a resident has received, the more likely they are to be emotionally loyal and have a proactive, sustained and normative loyalty to environmental protection behavior. Hypotheses H2a, H2a-1, H2a-2, and H2a-3 were preliminarily verified as correct. The Eta squared coefficient between residents' trans-education, EC, CC, NC, self-efficacy, and EPC, and their green travel behavior is shown in Table 4; this indicates that green travel behavior is strongly correlated with trans-education, self-efficacy, EPC, EC, NC, and CC at the 0.01% significance level. Hypotheses H1, H2b, H2b-1, H2b-2, and H2b-3 were preliminarily verified as correct.

It was found that trans-education significantly influences green travel behavior, suggesting that the transmission of green ideas from the younger generation to the older generation impacts the older generation's choice of travel. This finding confirms the influence of another person's green behaviors on individual decision-making (Meijers et al., 2019). It explains why family heterogeneity affects green travel decisions (Yang et al., 2017). The younger generation receives more green information from the outside world than the older generation (Bulut et al., 2017), leading to stronger green perceptions. In intergenerational family communication, younger generations transmit more up-to-date green concepts to the older generation through trans-education (Zhou, 2000). As green concepts of the older generation become stronger, their travel behaviors shift toward more environmentally friendly transportation choices. This finding provides a new perspective for understanding the individual-level factors influencing green travel, complementing and improving the existing research framework. Our research findings differ from those of Jaime et al. (2023), possibly due to the fact that our study was conducted in different cultural environments. Consequently, it underscores the importance of exploring alternative research methodologies, such as laboratory experiments and informational intervention trials, to further validate our findings and ensure a more comprehensive understanding in the future.

Children's influence on their parents is more emotional than intellectual, such as ethics and norms (Wang et al., 2023; Chen et al., 2025). Trans-education is both a direct expression of children's ethical behaviors and a process of parental education. Therefore, it can influence residents' green travel behaviors by affecting a resident's EPC. Commitment often represents a longer and more active choice, consequently, trans-education makes residents more active in choosing a low-carbon and environmentally friendly way of traveling. After analyzing the role of different dimensions of EPC, it was found that EC, CC, and NC all played a mediating role. In the emotional dimension, EC serves as a mediator, as trans-education can strengthen individuals' emotional attachment to and identification with environmental protection behaviors. When children show greater concerned for green and low-carbon behaviors, their parents will develop more positive environmental protection attitudes (Singh et al., 2020). They recognize the value and goals of environmental protection behaviors, fostering voluntary environmental protection in such behaviors (Khan, 2023). NC serves as a mediator because trans-education can enhance residents' sense of responsibility for environmental protection behaviors. Parents among residents tend to be more prone to embracing green and low-carbon practices, a phenomenon often referred to as the “green parent effect” (Shrum et al., 2023). A profound sense of accountability toward future generations serves as a pivotal catalyst in fostering such environmentally conscious behaviors among residents (Syropoulos et al., 2023). This sense of responsibility forms a soft constraint on the residents' green travel choices, and they will pay attention to whether their behaviors are environmentally friendly (Wang et al., 2023). At the same time, they will consider whether it will affect the development of their children's environmental protection behaviors, which in turn motivates them to choose a green mode of transport. In the persistence dimension, CC serves as a mediator, as trans-education promotes a sense of benefit acquisition for residents' green travel behaviors. The older generation's environmental protection behaviors will influence the younger generation's environmental protection behaviors (Singh et al., 2020), and the process of trans-education shows that their education is successful. This psychological satisfaction makes the older generation more persistent and proactive in choosing green modes of transport (Wang et al., 2021). Given the longevity of commitment and the comprehensive nature of its dimension, trans-education has a more enduring impact on residents' choice of green transportation modes by enhancing their effectiveness, persistence, and normality.

Self-efficacy plays a moderating role in the path of influence of trans-education on green travel behavior. This verifies that the level of individual self-efficacy shows willingness (Lin and Hsu, 2015). However, unlike previous studies, this study found that excessively high self-efficacy can inhibit the effect of trans-education on green travel behavior and thereby hinder the adoption of green transportation modes. Self-determination theory and moral disengagement theory provide a robust explanation for this phenomenon. Self-determination theory posits that individual behavior is driven by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, whereas moral disengagement theory suggests that individuals may engage in unethical behavior to fulfill specific goals or needs, despite recognizing violations of moral standards. In this study, transgenerational education represents a process in which children educate their parents. For parents with high self-efficacy, the belief in their ability to independently engage in green and low-carbon behavior is stronger than merely adjusting their travel modes. Consequently, they are more likely to rationalize their non-green travel behaviors, further weakening the impact of transgenerational education on green travel behavior.

This study has several limitations: (1) Given that communication between primary school students and their parents is more frequent and effective, this study selected parent-child pairs from a primary school in Jinan, Shandong. Additionally, the survey targeted households with private vehicles. Future research could expand the scope of field experiments by including families from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds to enhance the generalizability of the findings. (2) This study adopted travel frequency as a measure of residents' green travel behavior, following Geng et al. (2017) research. Future studies could develop a more comprehensive, multidimensional measurement framework to better capture variations in green travel behavior.

The family is the most basic unit in society, and this study verifies the possibility of exploring the possibility of guiding residents to travel green from a family perspective. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made.

(1) Deliver richer green information to the younger generation through various channels, including school education, to cultivate a deep green mindset. Schools should strengthen collaborations with local environmental departments and organizations, inviting environmental experts to conduct lectures and provide more comprehensive green information. We should be good at stimulating students' sense of self-radiation and enriching the subject education on ecological construction and environmental protection actions when conducting instructional design. It is also important to design instructional designs that encourage students to motivate their parents. Subsequently, with the power of trans-education, the younger generation can become an important medium to push their parents to change their green travel behavior.

(2) The power of commitment should not be underestimated. The commitment made by the younger generation will have a far-reaching impact on their green and low-carbon behaviors. Similarly, the older generation's commitment to environmental protection will also positively impact their green travel behavior. Government agencies should organize more family-based environmental seminars and sharing sessions, encouraging the older generation to make environmental commitments during these events. This approach can enhance their environmental awareness and motivate them to serve as role models for younger generations in adopting green and low-carbon lifestyles.

(3) To cultivate a green and low-carbon culture in society, we need to recognize that overconfidence may lead to self-justifying motives, thus hindering the transformation of green travel behaviors. To overcome this obstacle, we must integrate green and low-carbon behaviors into societal norms and ethics, reinforcing residents' sense of responsibility. By enacting and enforcing relevant laws and policies, strengthening environmental education and advocacy, and establishing incentives for green travel, we can enhance citizens' environmental accountability and moral awareness. Furthermore, fostering collaboration among governments, businesses, and the public to build a culture of green and low-carbon living will create a favorable atmosphere where residents naturally opt for environmentally friendly modes of transportation. In this context, residents will more consciously choose green travel options, contributing to the sustainable development of society.