The relationships among adult sustainability attitudes, psychological well-being, nature relatedness, and interest in scientific issues

Abstract

The psychological construct of nature relatedness has received increasing attention in the research on pro-environmental attitudes and psychological well-being. Public interest in scientific issues is an important issue in scientific literacy research. The aim of this research was to examine the relationships among adult interest in scientific issues, nature relatedness, sustainability attitudes, and their psychological well-being. Probability proportional to size sampling, which is a method used to divide a population into several stratums (systematic sampling was used for these stratums according to their size in proportion to the population), was conducted. Four hundred thirty-three citizens aged between 18 and 70 years were involved as participants. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test specific theory-based hypotheses. The results revealed that adult interest in scientific issues had a direct effect on adult nature relatedness, which, in turn, had direct effects on sustainability attitudes and psychological well-being. It was also found that adult interest in scientific issues had a partial and indirect mediation effect on the sustainability attitudes of the participants. This research has provided additional insights since the proposed model has demonstrated that individuals interested in scientific issues were more likely to experience better well-being and possess positive sustainability attitudes, which are promising findings.