Highly Sensitive People and Nature: Identity, Eco-Anxiety, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Trait Characteristics Associated with Nature
1.2. Aim of the Study and Hypothesis Development
2. Methods
2.1. Participants and Design
2.2. Materials
3. Results
4. Discussion
4.1. Limitations and Future Perspectives
4.2. Implications
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Scales and Authors | Number of Items | Dimensions | Reliability (Cronbach’s α) |
---|---|---|---|
Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS; Aron & Aron, 1997 [3]) | 27 | Three dimensions: ease of excitation, aesthetic sensitivity, and low sensory threshold | 0.89 (Cronbach’s α: EOE = 0.81; AES = 0.72; LST = 0.78) |
Connectedness to Nature Scale (CTN; Mayer & Frantz, 2004 [34]) | 14 | Unidimensional | 0.84 |
Climate Change Attitude Survey (CCAS; Christensen & Knezek, 2015 [39]) | 15 | Two dimensions: beliefs and intentions | 0.78 (Cronbach’s α: beliefs = 0.90; intentions = 0.78) |
New Ecological Paradigm (NEP; Dunlap et al., 2000 [40]) | 15 | Unidimensional | 0.83 |
Pro-Environmental Behavior Scale (PEB; Markle, 2013 [42]) | 19 | Four dimensions: conservation, environmental citizenship, food, and transportation | 0.76 (Cronbach’s α: conservation = 0.74; environmental citizenship = 0.65; food = 0.66; transportation = 0.62) |
Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale (EA; Hogg et al., 2021 [43]) | 13 | Four dimensions: affective symptoms, rumination, behavioral symptoms, and personal impact | 0.93 (affective symptoms = 0.92; rumination = 0.90; behavioral symptoms = 0.86; personal impact = 0.88) |
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Variable | Min | Max | Mean (S.D.) | Skew. | Kurt. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CTN | 34 | 67 | 50.88 (6.28) | −0.123 | −0.401 |
CCAS—Belief | 14 | 45 | 40.82 (4.88) | −2.18 | 6.06 |
CCAS—Intention | 10 | 30 | 25.09 (4.01) | −0.984 | 0.859 |
NEP | 31 | 75 | 57.67 (7.5) | −0.364 | −0.197 |
HSPS—Ease of Excitation | 14 | 59 | 40.31 (8.067) | −0.211 | −0.302 |
HSPS—Aesthetic Sensitivity | 14 | 35 | 25.40 (4.21) | −0.280 | −0.282 |
HSPS—Low Sensory Threshold | 6 | 29 | 16.53 (5.03) | 0.047 | −0.668 |
HSPS—Total Score | 47 | 132 | 88.37 (15.93) | −0.045 | −0.432 |
PEBS—Conservation | 16 | 35 | 27.91 (3.60) | −0.57 | 0.33 |
PEBS—Environmental Citizenship | 6 | 26 | 13.42 (3.90) | 0.446 | 0.212 |
PEBS—Food | 3 | 15 | 10.19 (4.90) | −0.434 | −1.422 |
EA—Affective Symptoms | 0 | 12 | 4.45 (2.75) | 0.323 | −0.172 |
EA—Rumination | 0 | 9 | 2.79 (1.89) | −0.264 | −0.277 |
EA—Behavioral Symptoms | 0 | 9 | 2.54 (2.24) | 0.653 | −240 |
EA—Personal Impact | 0 | 0 | 3.00 (2.11) | 0.420 | −0.171 |
Variable | CTN | NEP | CCAS—Belief | CCAS—Intention | PEBS—Conservation | PEBS—Environmental Citizenship | PEBS—Food | PEBS—Transportation | EA—Affective Symptoms | EA—Rumination | EA—Behavioral Symptoms | EA—Personal Impact |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HSPS—Ease of Excitation | 0.175 ** | 0.201 ** | 0.292 ** | 0.219 ** | 0.110 ** | 0.046 | 0.212 ** | 0.228 ** | 0.453 ** | 0.277 ** | 0.320 ** | 0.326 ** |
HSPS—Aesthetic Sensitivity | 0.472 ** | 0.300 ** | 0.293 ** | 0.325 ** | 0.303 ** | 0.324 ** | 0.282 ** | 0.249 ** | 0.254 ** | 0.236 ** | 0.201 ** | 0.396 ** |
HSPS—Low Sensory Threshold | 0.240 ** | 0.104 * | 0.093 * | 0.040 | 0.141 ** | 0.110 * | 0.259 ** | 0.136 ** | 0.378 ** | 0.218 ** | 0.344 ** | 0.295 ** |
HSPS Total score | 0.319 ** | 0.240 ** | 0.279 ** | 0.225 ** | 0.202 ** | 0.168 ** | 0.296 ** | 0.246 ** | 0.462 ** | 0.333 ** | 0.365 ** | 0.407 ** |
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Duradoni, M.; Fiorenza, M.; Bellotti, M.; Severino, F.P.; Valdrighi, G.; Guazzini, A. Highly Sensitive People and Nature: Identity, Eco-Anxiety, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors. Sustainability 2025, 17, 2740. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17062740
Duradoni M, Fiorenza M, Bellotti M, Severino FP, Valdrighi G, Guazzini A. Highly Sensitive People and Nature: Identity, Eco-Anxiety, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors. Sustainability. 2025; 17(6):2740. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17062740
Chicago/Turabian StyleDuradoni, Mirko, Maria Fiorenza, Martina Bellotti, Franca Paola Severino, Giulia Valdrighi, and Andrea Guazzini. 2025. "Highly Sensitive People and Nature: Identity, Eco-Anxiety, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors" Sustainability 17, no. 6: 2740. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17062740
APA StyleDuradoni, M., Fiorenza, M., Bellotti, M., Severino, F. P., Valdrighi, G., & Guazzini, A. (2025). Highly Sensitive People and Nature: Identity, Eco-Anxiety, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors. Sustainability, 17(6), 2740. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17062740