The NR-6: a new brief measure of nature relatedness

Nisbet, Elizabeth K.; Zelenski, John M.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00813

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol., 01 November 2013

Sec. Personality and Social Psychology

Volume 4 - 2013 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00813

The NR-6: a new brief measure of nature relatedness

$\r\nElizabeth K. Nisbet$ Elizabeth K. Nisbet¹

John M. Zelenski²^*

¹Department of Psychology, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada
²Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

The construct of (dis)connection with nature or “nature relatedness” has become increasingly useful in the study of environmental behavior as well as psychological health and well-being. Strong nature relatedness is associated with greater happiness and ecologically sustainable behavior. A number of scales reliably assess individual differences in nature relatedness, but some circumstances may necessitate a brief measure. We developed a short-form version of the nature relatedness scale (NR-6), comprised of 6 items from the “self” and “experience” dimensions, and tested the new scale's predictive ability across multiple samples and with longitudinal data in students, community members, and business people. The new NR-6 scale demonstrated good internal consistency, temporal stability, and predicted happiness, environmental concern, and nature contact. This new brief measure of connectedness may have advantages where time and space are limited and the research context requires an assessment of connectedness elements rather than environmental attitudes.

Introduction

As environmental problems worsen, researchers are directing their attention toward human-nature relationships and their effects on environmentally sustainable behavior. The construct of nature relatedness (NR; and the self-report scale by the same name) captures individual differences in the way people view their relationship with the natural world (Nisbet et al., 2009). High nature relatedness, or a strong subjective connection with nature, is typically associated with greater happiness and environmental concern. Disconnection likely has harmful consequences for both human and environmental health, yet is a regular consequence of the modern lifestyles that often separate people (physically and psychologically) from the natural world. Thus, research on nature relatedness has potentially important implications, and the NR scale is increasingly used in research on sustainability and well-being. As these research contexts expand, the scale's length at 21 items can sometimes pose a problem. Here, we describe the development and validation of a new short version of the nature relatedness scale.

The theoretical background of nature relatedness draws on Wilson's (1984) biophilia hypothesis. He argued that because humans evolved in nature, we developed an innate need to connect with all life; other living things supported our health and survival. The biophilia hypothesis helps to explain our connection (and the consequences of disconnection) with the natural world. Kellert and Wilson (1993) suggest that the learning and appreciation of biodiversity has likely been embedded in our biology, and that nature is essential for our health and development. The biophilia hypothesis has inspired a wide variety of research, for example, on landscape preference and phobias (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Heerwagen and Orians, 1993; Ulrich, 1993). The popularity of outdoor wilderness activities, gardening, our relationship with animals, and our fondness for natural scenery are also evidence of biophilia (Lawrence, 1993; see Kahn, 1999, for a review). The mood (MacKerron and Mourato, in press), cognitive (Berman et al., 2008), health (Frumkin, 2001), and longevity (Mitchell and Popham, 2008) benefits associated with proximity to greenspace are also indicative of nature's importance for optimal health and well-being (see also the broad review by Selhub and Logan, 2012).

Despite these benefits, and people's evident attraction to nature, there are individual differences in how people connect with nature. Indeed, people relate to the physical environment differently, and these environmental dispositions are relatively stable and trait-like McKechnie (1977). Moreover, objective contact with nature is not fully equivalent to the subjective sense of connection that likely fosters sustainable attitudes and well-being. Some people may be very connected to their local ecosystems, while others may view themselves as completely separate from the natural environment. Urban-dwelling people, in particular, may have little or no contact with nature (Maller et al., 2005). People likely find it difficult to value and care for the environment if they feel separated from nature and it is not part of their experience. Individual differences in how connected people are with nature may reflect how aware they are of biophilia or how much their biophilic tendencies are supported or suppressed. Many people may have lost their connection to the natural world (Conn, 1998), and these damaged human-nature relationships may be contributing to environmentally destructive behavior as well as unhappiness.

Schultz (2000) argues that environmental concerns are directly related to the degree with which people see themselves as part of nature. In other words, if people do not value nature or care about the environment they are not likely to protect it (Howard, 1997). The more connected people are to nature, the more they will be aware of their own actions and be concerned for all living things (Schultz, 2000). This type of “biospheric” attitude reflects a strong human-nature connection, whereas exclusive concerns for one's self (“egoistic” concerns) indicate a damaged relationship. Nature relatedness and biospheric concern are associated with less self-interest and more consideration of the larger environment, in other words, more environmental concern (Schultz, 2000; Mayer and Frantz, 2004; Dutcher et al., 2007) and self-reported environmental behavior (Schultz, 2001, 2002; Clayton, 2003; Nisbet et al., 2009).

With continuing environmental destruction, loss of biodiversity, and species extinction, we may be losing many of the elements necessary to trigger and nurture our biophilia (Thomashow, 1998). A damaged environment is unlikely to extinguish our need to connect with nature, however, it may diminish our appreciation for the role of natural diversity in healthy physical and psychological development, and reduce the opportunity for future generations to benefit from nature (Kellert, 1997). The fact that our biophilic tendencies have not resulted in more widespread environmental behavior suggests value in further studying individual differences in levels of connectedness.

To that end, a number of assessment tools have been developed to capture subjective connectedness with nature (e.g., nature relatedness, connectedness to nature, connectivity with nature, environmental identity; Schultz, 2000; Clayton, 2003; Mayer and Frantz, 2004; Dutcher et al., 2007; Nisbet et al., 2009). It is possible to make small distinctions among these constructs and assessment tools, but research to date suggests considerable similarity (Tam, 2013). Here we focus on the particular example of nature relatedness.

Nisbet et al. (2009) proposed the construct of nature relatedness to capture several facets of human-nature relationships—cognition, affect, and experience—and to measure people's interest in, fascination with, and desire for nature contact. Nature relatedness is similar to the notion of an ecological identity (a sense of self that includes nature), but is a broader concept encompassing emotions, experiences, and an understanding of human interconnectedness with all other living things. Nature relatedness is not simply a love of nature, or enjoyment of only the superficially pleasing facets of nature, but rather an awareness and understanding of all aspects of the natural world, even those that are not aesthetically appealing or useful to humans. Nature relatedness may be indicative of how much an innate need to connect with nature (biophilia) has (or has not) been nurtured. Considering the biophilia hypothesis, it also follows that a strong sense of nature relatedness should predict happiness and well-being more broadly.

Psychologists conceptualize happiness, or subjective well-being, in a variety of ways. One approach to defining subjective well-being—a hedonic approach—is to focus on the quantity of positive and negative emotions, and satisfaction with one's life (Diener, 2000). Another approach, from a humanistic perspective, uses the term psychological well-being and includes other adaptive characteristics such as sense of purpose and meaning in life (Ryff and Keyes, 1995). Drawing on both traditions, research on nature relatedness has considered happiness as a multidimensional construct and has assessed links with hedonic and eudaimonic indicators. For example, people higher in trait nature relatedness report more life satisfaction, vitality, and positive affect, as well as greater purpose in life, autonomy, and personal growth (Howell et al., 2011; Nisbet et al., 2011; Tam, 2013). The association between happiness and nature relatedness remains (or, in some cases, becomes stronger) after controlling for environmental attitude measures. Controlling for other subjective connections (e.g., with family, culture, group identities) also does not remove the link between nature relatedness and happiness (Zelenski and Nisbet, in press). Thus, it appears that nature relatedness is distinct from both environmental attitudes and a general sense of connection. There is something special about how people view their relationship with nature.

The construct of nature relatedness has been useful in understanding individual differences in environmental behavior and well-being. As interest in the construct has grown, it has also become clear that the scale's length of 21 items makes it too unwieldy for some research contexts. We therefore undertook an effort to develop a short version that was similar to the original (e.g., in terms of its content and correlates) and retained good psychometric properties. Two similar brief measures currently exist. Schultz's (2001) inclusion of nature in self (INS) is a single item, and Dutcher et al.'s (2007) connectivity with nature is five items (that includes the single INS item). (Other similar scales have >10 items). Although these measures likely provide reasonable substitutes, we note that a recent comparison found them to be somewhat less reliable, less strongly related, and somewhat distinct in predicting outcomes, compared to longer scales (Tam, 2013). Thus, there appears to be potential in a new abbreviated scoring of the nature relatedness scale.

To create the short version, we selected items from the 21-item scale that were representative of the theoretical foundations of the nature relatedness construct. Drawing on data from over 1200 previous participants, we examined frequency distributions to find items that discriminate low from highly nature related people well, and looked for items that had relatively normal distributions. We also examined individual items' correlations with other conceptually related scales that assessed environmental attitudes and subjective well-being. Using these criteria, we selected six nature relatedness items that performed very similarly to the full 21-item scale. Four of the items assess self-identification with nature, a sense of connectedness that may be reflected in spirituality, awareness or subjective knowledge about the environment, and feelings of oneness with nature: “I always think about how my actions affect the environment,” “My connection to nature and the environment is a part of my spirituality,” “My relationship to nature is an important part of who I am,” and “I feel very connected to all living things and the earth.” Two additional items capture individual differences in the need for nature and comfort with wilderness, as well as awareness of local wildlife or nearby nature: “My ideal vacation spot would be a remote, wilderness area” and “I take notice of wildlife wherever I am” (Appendix A).

It is worth noting that the six selected items represent only two of three factors observed in an exploratory factor analysis of the full scale (Nisbet et al., 2009). Those subscales were interpreted as a sense of identification (“self”), contact with nature (“experience”), and pro-nature conservation attitudes (“perspective”). Although initially hesitant to omit all perspective items, we ultimately concluded that this was the best choice for a few reasons. Perhaps obviously, our selection was done relatively blind to the subscales, i.e., we followed reasonable criteria without regard to them. The data strongly informed which items were selected, and it is indeed telling that validity correlations, particularly those with environmental attitudes, were strong without the pro-conservation items. At a conceptual level, identification and actual connection with nature seem more central to the construct of nature relatedness, and it seems fitting that these subscales form the essential items of a short version. It may be that the “perspective” subscale assesses something that is less nature relatedness and more the related, but distinct, construct of pro-environmental attitudes.

We present data from four studies that assessed the links among nature relatedness, environmental attitudes, and subjective well-being. The first three of these draw on archival findings, comparing the new short scoring to the full scale in the data we used to initially validate the full scale and more recently used to select the short scale items. We then present new data, i.e., collected after the new scoring was determined, that replicates and further validates the short version of the scale. Across studies, we expected the NR-6 measure to correlate positively with happiness and environmental behavior. We also anticipated that the short-form NR scale would predict the amount of time people spend in contact with nature.

Study 1

Method

Participants and procedure

One hundred and eighty-four undergraduate students from the psychology participant pool were recruited for a study on “personality and well-being” (reported previously as Study 1, phase 2 in Nisbet et al., 2009, and Study 1 in Nisbet et al., 2011). Most participants (82.1%) were first year students and the majority were female (67.4%; n = 124; n = 60 males). The average age was 19.48 years (SD = 2.83). Participants completed pen and paper versions of the nature relatedness scale, well-being and environmental measures in the laboratory, in exchange for course credit.

Materials

The 21-item Nature Relatedness Scale (NR) assesses subjective connectedness with the natural environment. Participants respond to statements using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) and items are averaged with higher scores indicating stronger connectedness. The new short-form Nature Relatedness Scale (NR-6) was computed by averaging the appropriate items. Reliability statistics for all scales are in Table 1, in Results (see Appendix B for the means and standard deviations for all studies).

TABLE 1

Table 1. Study 1—nature relatedness correlations with well-being and environmental measures in students (n = 184).

Happiness indicators. The Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS, Watson et al., 1988) was used to measure trait positive and negative affect. Participants indicated how much, in general, they felt each of 20 emotions, using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Responses to the 10 positive and 10 negative emotion words were averaged, separately, to create positive and negative affect scores.

The Psychological Well-Being Inventory (Ryff, 1989) assessed six dimensions of eudaimonic well-being: autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relations with others, self-acceptance, purpose in life, and personal growth. Respondents were asked about 54 statements (9 for each dimension) pertaining to various aspects of their lives, using a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) and items from the respective dimensions were averaged to a create score for each of the six dimensions.

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985) asked participants to respond to five statements concerning their life satisfaction on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (strong disagreement) to 6 (strong agreement). Items were averaged to produce a life satisfaction score.

Three subscales of the Ecology Scale, Short-Form (Maloney et al., 1975) assessed verbal and actual commitment and affect (10 items each) toward ecological issues concerning transportation, monetary donations, consumer purchases, pollution, political activism, and general awareness in a “true” or “false” response format. The respective items were summed to create overall scores for verbal commitment and actual commitment and affect.

The New Ecological Paradigm Scale (Dunlap et al., 2000) assessed ecological worldview. Participants rate 15 statements on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). Unidimensional scoring was used, averaging items such that higher scores indicate stronger environmental views.

The New Ecological Consciousness Scale (Ellis and Thompson, 1997) assesses environmentalism. Participants rate 10 items about ecological crises, overpopulation, and human responsibility for environmental degradation using a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree). Items were averaged for scoring with higher values indicating stronger environmentalism.

Results

To test the predictive ability of the new short-form nature relatedness scale, we correlated the NR-6 and full 21-item NR scale with the well-being and environmental variables. We also calculated the average absolute difference between NR-6 and NR-21 correlations with the outcome variables (using Fischer's r to z transformations). The short-form scale showed a similar pattern of correlations as the full scale, with a few exceptions (Table 1). Relationships with satisfaction with life, self-acceptance, and purpose in life were only significant for the full NR scale (the NR-6 correlations were in the expected direction, however). The short-form and full NR scales were strongly correlated (r = 0.90, p < 0.01).