Are nature lovers happy? On various indicators of well-being and connectedness with nature

Abstract

Connectedness with nature (CN) is seen as a personal disposition relevant for environmental as well as human health. In five questionnaire studies (N = 547) we systematically investigated the relationship between various operationalizations of well-being and CN. CN was assessed with two different tools in parallel. All significant correlations were controlled for the effects of age and gender. Psychological well-being, meaningfulness and vitality were found to be robustly correlated with CN. We highlight the relevance of CN with respect to human health and further discuss conceptual differences unraveled by the concurrent application of two CN-tools.