This study compared Ecuadorian and German young people's nature relatedness and environmental concern. The study also investigated predictive factors of nature relatedness and environmental concern. Choosing Ecuador and Germany as study sites allowed the researchers to investigate differences between a Latin American developing country and a European industrialized country.
High school students from Germany (N=2173) and Ecuador (N=451) completed a 66-item questionnaire during regular school hours. Participation was voluntary and anonymity guaranteed. Items on the questionnaire collected information about time spent in nature, nature relatedness, value orientations, and environmental concern. Time spent in nature was assessed by asking students to indicate on a 5-point Likert scale the amount of time they spend in nature. A definition of nature was not provided, allowing students to respond according to their own perception of nature. Twelve items on the questionnaire asked participants whether their environmental concern is caused by egoistic, altruistic, or biospheric motives. These items were based on The Environmental Concern Scale, which measures concern about environmental problems rooted in human behavior. Egoistic concerns relate to the individual; altruistic concerns to other people; and biospheric concerns to plants and animals. Value orientation items asked participants about values relating to their actions, beliefs, and attitudes in general, as well as toward nature. These items were based on the Portrait Values Questionnaire which includes self-transcendence and self-enhancement values. Self-transcendence, in this context, refers to prosocial norms relating to the welfare of other people and nature including all living beings. The 6-item version of the Nature Relatedness Scale was used to measure students' nature relatedness, which is defined as “a perceived cognitive, affective, and experiential connection to the natural world”.
Results showed Ecuadorian students to be more related to nature and had higher concern for nature than German students. Students from the two countries also differed in the structure of their concern for nature: German students had high altruistic concern about environmental problems; Ecuadorian students high egoistic concern. Gender differences within groups were also evident. Females in the German group tended to have higher nature relatedness than males; the reverse was true in the Ecuadorian group. There was no relation between being female and biospheric concern in the German group, but being female showed a negative effect on biospheric concern in the Ecuadorian group. For both groups, self-transcendence and time spent in nature were positively linked to nature relatedness. Self-enhancement did not have an effect on nature relatedness in either group; but in both groups, self-transcendence and self-enhancement showed a positive effect on egoistic concern.
While some of the differences identified in this study may be due to culture-specific socialization, other differences may be due to living in a biodiversity hotspot -- that is, an area characterized by high species density and experiencing a high degree of threat. Ecuadorian students in this study were more likely than the German students to live in or near biodiversity hotspots. This increased exposure to a biodiverse environment under threat might explain the high biospheric environmental concern in the Ecuadorian students. These findings highlight the importance of giving young people opportunities to learn in and from nature. Increased exposure to nature can promote young peoples' nature relatedness and environmental concern which, in turn, tends to promote pro-environmental behavior.
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