The ABC connectedness to nature scale: development and validation of a scale with an approach to affective, behavioural, and cognitive aspects

Abstract

Connectedness to nature influences the well-being and health of individuals, communities, and the planet. Although many validated scales exist, none includes the three fundamental aspects of any attitude: the affective, behavioural, and cognitive components. The study’s main objective was to develop and validate an integral tool, the ABC Connectedness to Nature Scale (ABC-CNS), which would enable the measurement of the affective, behavioural, and cognitive aspects of this construct. The questionnaire was administered to 1,375 students (878 Ecuadorian and 497 Spanish). Exploratory factor analysis retained the three expected factors. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed a robust adjustment for the tridimensional structure, but cross-cultural invariance was not attained: Although the ABC-CNS is valid for both Ecuador and Spain, the scores cannot be compared in both cultural contexts analysed. The pattern of relations with other psychological variables (proenvironmental values, appreciation and preservation of nature, and individual and classmates’ proenvironmental behaviours) provided evidence of the structure and construct validity. The ABC-CNS scale is an integral, reliable, and short tool to measure connectedness to nature through the proposed dimensions. The tool is suitable for environmental professionals and researchers to assess individuals’ connectedness to nature, a psychological variable that may affect a person’s mental health and proenvironmental behaviour.

Keywords:

• Connectedness to nature
• proenvironmental attitudes
• proenvironmental behaviour
• scale construction
• scale validation

Acknowledgements

We Acknowledge Cicero Roberto Pereira for his support in the analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Esther Cuadrado: is professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cordoba, Spain. Her research focuses on diverse aspects of human behavior and psychological health. She is interested in understanding patterns and potential causal motivational factors related to psychological health, prosocial and proenvironmental behavior at the individual and collective levels. Luis

Macias-Zambrano: is professor at the Lay University Eloy Alfaro de Manabi, Ecuador. As PhD Student, he is interested on the field of sustainable development. His main research focuses on environmental behavior, nature connectedness and human relationship with nature in general.

Antonio Carpio: is a postdoctoral researcher (Juan de la Cierva Incorporación) at UCLM, and a member of the IREC Health and Biotechnology Research Group (SaBio). His lines of research combine areas such as the management and monitoring of wildlife, the applied ecology of wildlife, and the conservation of biodiversity.

Carmen Tabernero: is full professor of Social Psychology at the University of Salamanca, Spain. From a social-cognitive perspective, her main research interests focus on the analysis of motivational processes at the individual and collective level (e.g., self-regulatory mechanisms, selfefficacy beleifs, goals, emotional states, positivity) related to analytical strategies and behaviors.

Data availability statement

Data are available at https://doi.org/10.17632/t8v6ncybm6.1.