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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1388798

Bonding with nature: A validation of the Dispositional Empathy with Nature Scale in Italy

Provisionally accepted
Chiara Lovati Chiara Lovati 1*Federico Manzi Federico Manzi 2Cinzia Di Dio Cinzia Di Dio 3Davide Massaro Davide Massaro 3Gabriella Gilli Gabriella Gilli 4Antonella Marchetti Antonella Marchetti 3
  • 1 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy
  • 2 Departement of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
  • 3 Research Unit on Theory of Mind, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
  • 4 Research Unit in Psychology of Art, Departement of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study proposes a psychometric validation of the Italian version of the Dispositional Empathy with Nature (DEN). Scientific research data has found high levels of environmental concern among people around the world, showing that majority of the population is aware of the seriousness of the environmental problems we are witnessing, as well as is conscious of the damage that some of their behaviors cause to the environment. Based on this premise, Empathy with Nature could be an important educational strategy for addressing the environmental crisis. A study was conducted involving 307 Italian adults (CFA = 146; 45.9% women; 54.1% man; Mean age = 34.65; SD = 11.770); (EFA = 161; 50.3% women; 49.7% man; Mean age = 34.30; SD = 10.360) to o assess the psychometric properties of a scale in the Italian context. The study aimed to establish the internal consistency of the DEN scale and evaluate its convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity.Both confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses, using a split sample, supported the one-factor structure consistent with the original version proposed by Tam (2013). These findings strongly suggest that the DEN scale is reliable and valid in the Italian context.1.

    Keywords: Dispositional Empathy with Nature Scale, Den, Italian validation, environment, Empathy, Pro-environmental behaviors

    Received: 20 Feb 2024; Accepted: 10 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Lovati, Manzi, Di Dio, Massaro, Gilli and Marchetti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chiara Lovati, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy

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