Connectedness to Built Environment as well as to Nature? First step in developing the Connectedness to Built Environment Scale

ffective Connectedness to Nature (CN) might influence the restorative value of natural environments as well as pro-environmental behavior. The theory overlooks the possible role of Affective Connectedness to the Built Environment (CBE). Does it exist, and if so, does it inversely relate to CN, or can one feel connection to both nature and the built environments? To better understand this, we developed the 14-item Connectedness to Built Environment Scale (CBES), derived from the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS, Mayer & Frantz, 2004). As an example, the CNS item “I think of the natural world as a community to which I belong” was reworded as “I think of the built surroundings as a place to which I belong” in the CBES. A sample of 315 U.S. adults (37% men) responded to an on-line survey with the 28 items (14 of the CNS and 14 of the CBES) randomized across participants. Confirmatory Factor Analysis on CBES confirmed the one-factor structure, with an excellent model fit (CFI=0.991, SRMR=0.0292, RMSEA=0.0241), after dropping 3 items, for both statistical and sense reasons. The reliability was good: Cronbach’s alfa=.82. Latent correlation between CNS and CBES was positive but not very high (r =.44), showing that the two scales measure quite independent constructs. They are not negatively related: someone can feel connected to both nature and the built environment. Future research could examine how attitudes and behavior toward the environment relate to people’s scores on each scale, and whether CBES scores can affect restorativeness of built environments.