Nature Connectedness as a Risk Factor for Psychological Distress after Environmental Disasters
Insights from the 2024 Attica Wildfires
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15686187 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexia Barrable (0000-0002-5352-8330, Queen Margaret University, corresponding author), Zsuzsa Lugosi-Grant (University of Stirling), Anna Stacey (Queen Margaret University), Anna Κ Touloumakos (0000-0002-4610-8418, Panteion University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 226-235 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-09 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ecopsychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1942-9347 • E-ISSN: 1942-9347 |
| Publisher | Mary Ann Liebert, Inc (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1089/eco.2024.0064 |
| OpenAlex | W4411150910 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 44 |
Nature connectedness, the construct that describes how close we feel to the rest of the natural world, has been studied extensively in the past decade. There have been prior studies showing a positive correlation between nature connectedness and wellbeing in both children and adults, as well as sustainable attitudes and behavior towards the environment. What has not been studied as well to date is the potential for nature connectedness to contribute to levels of distress and other negative emotions in the presence of the climate crisis and environmental disasters. This study analyzed results from a sample of Greek-speaking adults, collected in the 14 days after the 2024 Attica wildfires. We examined the relationship between respondents’ experience of the event and the associations between their nature connectedness and resultant psychological distress. We found that higher nature connectedness was associated with higher psychological distress in people who had experienced forest fires. While this relationship is moderate, the preliminary findings presented in this article suggest that future research on nature connectedness needs to take into account the potential for psychological distress in the face of ongoing environmental disasters and the climate crisis
Distress · Environmental disaster · Environmental protection · Mental health · Oil spill · Psychological distress · Psychotherapist · Risk factor · Social connectedness · Clinical Psychology · Disaster Management and Resilience · Environmental Science · Medicine · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Psychology · Risk Perception and Management · Social Psychology
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| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |