Cross-Sectional Survey Protocol for Assessing Protection Intention and Self-Reported Behavior in Agricultural...

Agricultural heritage tourism sustainability depends not only on ecological and cultural preservation, but also on the continued participation of local residents in protection-related practices. This protocol describes a reproducible cross-sectional survey and statistical analysis workflow for assessing protection intention and recent self-reported protective behavior among residents and farmers in the Xiajin Yellow River Old Course Ancient Mulberry Grove System in China. The workflow is grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior and examines how attitude toward the behavior (ATB), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) are associated with protection intention (PI), and how PI is associated with farmers' behavioral response (FBR). The questionnaire uses standardized construct blocks, fixed response anchors, predefined coding rules, and a sequential analysis procedure covering data screening, reliability testing, common method variance assessment, correlation analysis, regression modeling, cross-sectional mediation analysis, and robustness checks. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed in communities surrounding the heritage area, and 375 valid responses were retained after quality-control screening. In the representative application of this protocol, ATB, SN, and PBC were positively associated with PI, with PBC showing the strongest association. PI was also positively associated with FBR and showed statistically significant indirect associations between the antecedent constructs and FBR within the cross-sectional mediation model. Because PI refers to intention for the next planting season whereas FBR refers to self-reported behavior during the previous planting season, the results should be interpreted as a cross-sectional association structure rather than as evidence of strict temporal causality. This protocol provides a reusable framework for examining resident participation in agricultural heritage protection and for identifying whether protective behaviors are embedded in feasible agricultural, community, and tourism-related practices.