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. 2022 Apr 29:10:827046.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.827046. eCollection 2022.

How Is Connectedness With Nature Linked to Life Satisfaction or Depression Among Chinese People Living in Rural Low-Income Households? A Serial Mediation Model

Chunyu Yang  1 , Xiaoyan Chen  2 , Jun Yao  3 , Jing An  4
Affiliations

How Is Connectedness With Nature Linked to Life Satisfaction or Depression Among Chinese People Living in Rural Low-Income Households? A Serial Mediation Model

Chunyu Yang et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Objectives: In this study a serial multiple mediation model is tested to investigate the potential sequentially-mediating effect of affect balance and social cohesion on the association between connectedness to nature and life satisfaction or depression.

Methods: A total of 675 Chinese people from Jiangsu province living in rural low-income households participated in the study. The Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS), the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), the Social cohesion scale (SCS), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and the Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ9) were measured in this paper.

Results: Results indicated that the multiple serial mediation of affect balance and social cohesion on the association between connectedness to nature and life satisfaction was significant among the full-size sample, the adult-report, and the old people report, but that this effect is relatively small. Specifically, serial mediation accounted for 2.01, 1.69, 2.67% of the total effect explained by connectedness to nature on life satisfaction, while it accounted for 2.66, 2.35, 2.91% of the total effect explained by connectedness to nature on depression among the full sample population, adults, and old people, respectively.

Conclusions: The findings corroborate the important roles of affect balance and social cohesion in activating connectedness to nature. We discussed the possible ways that affect balance and social cohesion might enhance life satisfaction and decrease depression for Chinese people living in rural low-income households. We also discussed the limitations of this study. More mechanisms could be considered in future studies.

Keywords: affect balance; connectedness to nature; depression; life satisfaction; social cohesion.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The hypothesized model concerning the relationship between connectedness to nature and psychological adjustment: affect balance and social cohesion as mediators. CNS(X), connectedness to nature; Psychology(Y), life satisfaction or depression; c′, the direct effect from X to Y; c, total effect from X to Y.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The finalized structural model concerning the relationship between connectedness to nature and life satisfaction: affect balance and social cohesion as mediators. Left numbers, the full sample (N = 675); Middle number, the adult sample (N = 386); Right number, the old people sample (N = 288); c′, the direct effect from connectedness to nature to life satisfaction; c, total effect from connectedness to nature to life satisfaction. **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The finalized structural model concerning the relationship between connectedness to nature and depression: affect balance and social cohesion as mediators. Left numbers, the full sample (N = 675); Middle number, the adult sample (N = 386); Right number, the old people sample (N = 288); c′, the direct effect from connectedness to nature to depression; c, total effect from connectedness to nature to depression. **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The finalized structural model after controlling gender, age, marriage status and education level concerning the relationship between connectedness to nature and life satisfaction: affect balance and social cohesion as mediators. Left numbers, the full sample (N = 670); Middle number, the adult sample (N = 384); Right number, the old people sample(N = 286); c′, the direct effect from connectedness to nature to life satisfaction; c, total effect from connectedness to nature to life satisfaction. **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The finalized structural model after controlling gender, age, marriage status and education level concerning the relationship between connectedness to nature and depression: affect balance and social cohesion as mediators. Left numbers, the full sample (N = 670); Middle number, the adult sample (N = 384); Right number, the old people sample (N = 286); c′, the direct effect from connectedness to nature to depression; c, total effect from connectedness to nature to depression. **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
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