Journal of Environmental Psychology最新文献

Growing evidence suggests that engagement in nature-based recreation can improve people's well-being. However, there is a lack of information regarding which specific nature-based recreation activities are related to specific well-being indicators. We conducted a cross-sectional study to explore how different types of nature-based recreation (i.e., any nature-based activities, forest-based activities, gardening, nature-based adventure activities) related to five indicators of well-being on the WHO-5 index among American (n = 606), Brazilian (n = 448), and Spanish (n = 438) adults. Americans and Brazilians who reported engaging in nature-based recreation at least monthly in the last 12 months, or weekly during a typical week, were more likely to feel cheerful, relaxed, vigorous, rested after waking up, and interested in life than those who did not engage that frequently. Results in these two countries were similar across all five indicators of well-being and types of nature-based activity, except for gardening, where we observed slightly weaker correlations. In Spain, the correlation between nature-based recreation and well-being tended to be null or even negative, highlighting some variability in these relationships across countries. Further cross-country experimental work is needed to support these findings and identify the relative efficacy of specific nature-based interventions for enhancing human well-being around the world.

People engage in many different activities with climate consequences, including mundane everyday activities, such as eating meals and either saving or throwing away leftovers, and collective actions, such as voting, participating in political events and in other ways expressing support for or resistance against climate-relevant policy. Does engaging in everyday climate-relevant activities have implications for support of climate policy, and vice versa, as suggested by research on pro-environmental behavioural spillover? A repeated survey was collected yearly between 2018 and 2022 from representative samples of Norwegians, most of whom participated in more than one survey. The surveys included self-reports about two everyday climate-relevant behaviours (eating red meat and discarding food waste) and the support for two types of policy to mitigate climate change (expansion of wind power and “carbon taxes” – the use of taxes or fees to regulate climate-relevant behaviour). Cross-lagged structural equation modelling of relationships between everyday climate-relevant behaviour and support for mitigation policy reveal that, as expected, all auto-regressive effects (of a latent variable on itself, measured one year apart) are highly significant. There are also significant, positive cross-lagged (i.e., spillover) effects, which are generally bigger between the two types of everyday behaviours and support for the two types of policies than between everyday behaviour and policy support. However, support for carbon taxes has a strong positive effect on reducing meat consumption. Hence, it appears that when it comes to climate actions, consumer and citizen roles are intertwined. Spillover effects are partly mediated through climate concern.

Detachment from nature is contributing to the environmental crisis and reversing this trend requires detailed monitoring and targeted interventions to reconnect people to nature. Most tools measuring nature exposure and attachment were developed in high-income countries and little is known about their robustness across national and linguistic groups. Therefore, we used data from the Body Image in Nature Survey to assess measurement invariance of the Nature Exposure Scale (NES) and the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) across 65 nations, 40 languages, gender identities, and age groups (N = 56,968). While multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) of the NES supported full scalar invariance across gender identities and age groups, only partial scalar invariance was supported across national and linguistic groups. MG-CFA of the CNS also supported full scalar invariance across gender identities and age groups, but only partial scalar invariance of a 7-item version of the CNS across national and linguistic groups. Nation-level associations between NES and CNS scores were negligible, likely reflecting a lack of conceptual clarity over what the NES is measuring. Individual-level associations between both measures and sociodemographic variables were weak. Findings suggest that the CNS-7 may be a useful tool to measure nature connectedness globally, but measures other than the NES may be needed to capture nature exposure cross-culturally.