Exploring the Relationship Between Connectedness With Nature, Environmental Identity, and Environmental Self-Identity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

A meta-analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship between connectedness with nature, environmental identity, and environmental self-identity. Through meta-analyzing these relationships, we are able to assess the true estimate of their magnitude. The results revealed a strong correlation between measures of connectedness with nature and environmental identity (r =.75 [0.67, 0.83], k = 11) as well as environmental self-identity (r =.57 [.31,.84], k = 5). Further moderation analysis indicated that the relationship between connectedness with nature and environmental identity is different for graphical and questionnaire instruments used for assessing connectedness with nature; the aggregated correlation for graphical instruments (r =.62 [.56,.67], k = 9) was significantly lower than for questionnaires (r =.82 [.74,.91], k = 9). We suggest revisiting the various instruments assessing human–nature relatedness to maximize unique variance among them.