A measure of nature connectedness for children and adults: Validation, performance, and insights
The Nature Connection Index can be used with adults and children to identify changes in nature connectedness for individuals and groups of people
Nature connectedness is a psychological construct linked to both human well-being and pro-environmental behaviors. The Nature Connection Index (NCI) represents one of several tools developed to measure this important construct. This paper provides background information about the NCI, reports on validation study results, discusses some of the strengths and limitations of this assessment tool, and presents insights into what the NCI reveals about nature connectedness in both children and adults.
The development of the NCI was prompted, in part, on the need for a tool that could be used to obtain population level data on nature connectedness. While other tools for assessing nature connectedness are available, their use is limited “due to the number, length, and complexity of item wording.” Their use is also limited due to the fact that these instruments aren’t suitable for both adults and children.
Item selection for the NCI focused on people’s affective and experiential relationship with nature versus their cognitive appraisals about nature. The NCI consists of six statements relating to pathways to nature connectedness: emotion, beauty, contact, meaning and compassion. Three factor analyses were conducted to establish reliability of the NCI. These analyses included data from over 3500 adults and over 550 children. The process for establishing validity was based on a study comparing the NCI with other established measures of nature connectedness.
These analyses found the NCI “to be a reliable and valid scale that offers a short, simple alternative to other measures of nature connectedness, particularly for populations including both children and adults, measured face to face or online.” These results indicate that the NCI can be used as a tool to identify changes in nature connectedness across the lifespan. It can also be used at the population level to gain a better understanding of changes in nature connectedness for groups of people. This understanding could be then used to inform policy regarding human-nature connections.
Citation
Richardson, M., Hunt, A., Hinds, J., Bragg, R., Fido, D., Petronzi, D., Barbett, L., Clitherow, T., White, M., (2019). A measure of nature connectedness for children and adults: Validation, performance, and insights. Sustainability, 11(12)
