The Relationship Between Nature Connectedness and Eudaimonic Well-Being: A Meta-analysis

By A. Pritchard, Miles Richardson, David Sheffield, Kirsten McEwan. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2019

569 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Nature connectedness relates to an individual’s subjective sense of their relationship with the natural world. A recent meta-analysis has found that people who are more connected to nature also tend to have higher levels of self-reported hedonic well-being; however, no reviews have focussed on nature connection and eudaimonic well-being. This meta-analysis was undertaken to explore the relationship of nature connection with eudaimonic well-being and to test the hypothesis that this relationship is stronger than that of nature connection and hedonic well-being. From 20 samples (n = 4758), a small significant effect size was found for the relationship of nature connection and eudaimonic well-being (r = 0.24); there was no significant difference between this and the effect size (from 30 samples n = 11,638) for hedonic well-being (r = 0.20). Of the eudaimonic well-being subscales, personal growth had a moderate effect size which was significantly larger than the effect sizes for autonomy, purpose in life/meaning, self-acceptance, positive relations with others and environmental mastery, but not vitality. Thus, individuals who are more connected to nature tend to have greater eudaimonic well-being, and in particular have higher levels of self-reported personal growth.

Subfields: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d4c1ad634003d73cddb3f058af26160e1c211dc3

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Citations in the corpus

Applying the pathways to nature connectedness at a societal scale: a leverage points perspective (2020, background): “Given the benefits of nature connectedness outlined above, the pathways approach, through increasing nature connectedness, can also benefit wellbeing (Pritchard et al. 2019), pro-environmental (Mackay and Schmitt 2019) and pro-nature conservation behaviours (Richardson et al.”
Nature contact, nature connectedness and associations with health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours (2020, background): “Recent meta-analyses indicate that higher levels of nature connectedness (broadly defined) are positively associated with both higher levels of evaluative and eudaimonic wellbeing (Capaldi et al., 2014; Pritchard et al., 2019) and also more pro-environmental behaviours (Mackay & Schmitt, 2019; Whitb”
Perceived social impacts of tourism and quality-of-life: a new conceptual model (2020, background): “Scholars have evidenced that engagement in physical activities in nature may help reduce anxiety and distress promoting one’s wellbeing (Junot et al., 2018; Pritchard et al., 2020) which is an importantly sought outcome in the current pandemic context (Van Bavel et al.”
Moments, not minutes: The nature-wellbeing relationship (2021, background): “natural environment plays in our mental health and wellbeing (reviews by Bratman et al., 2019; Capaldi et al., 2014, 2015; Pritchard et al., 2019).”
A Measure of Nature Connectedness for Children and Adults: Validation, Performance, and Insights (2019, background): “A growing body of evidence suggests that nature connectedness has benefits to mental well-being (for reviews see [5,6]) and can also help deliver pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors [7–9].”