Pro-Environmental Behavior, Connectedness to Nature, and Wellbeing Dimensions among Granada Students

Nazaret Ibáñez-Rueda, Mònica Guillén-Royo and Jorge Guardiola
Additional contact information
Nazaret Ibáñez-Rueda: Department of Applied Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universidad de Granada, Campus de Cartuja s/n, 18011 Granada, Spain
Mònica Guillén-Royo: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Universitetsalléen 11, 8026 Bodø, Norway
Jorge Guardiola: Institute of Peace and Conflicts, Universidad de Granada, C/ Rector López Argueta, s/n, 18001 Granada, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-16

Abstract: This paper aims to answer the following research questions: Are there differences between individual and collective pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) in their relationship with wellbeing? What role does connectedness to nature play in those relationships? We understand individual PEBs as efforts to consume less and to reduce the environmental impact of consumption, whereas we define collaborative PEBs in terms of environmental activism. We consider connectedness to nature as a potential factor moderating the relationship between PEBs and wellbeing. The study incorporates several dimensions of wellbeing: cognitive, affective and eudaimonic. We use regression analysis to study the extent to which individual and collective PEBs explain the three wellbeing dimensions and we explore the moderating role of connectedness to nature using data from a sample of 973 students at the University of Granada (Spain). Results indicate that individual PEBs are positively related to the eudaimonic dimension of wellbeing but they do not explain the cognitive and affective dimensions. In contrast, collaborative PEB is negatively related to life satisfaction, our measure of the cognitive dimension, but not significantly related to the other wellbeing measures. Based on this evidence, we can answer our first research question in the affirmative. As for the second question, our results suggest that connectedness to nature plays a moderating role in the relationship between life satisfaction and collaborative PEBs, as the initially negative relationship is reversed when people feel highly connected to nature.

Keywords: happiness; wellbeing; pro-environmental behaviors; connectedness to nature; activism; sustainable consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/9171/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/9171/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:21:p:9171-:d:439965

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().