The Effect Of Connectedness To Nature On The Well-being Of University Students: Mediating Role Of Dispositional Mindfulness

The natural environment plays an important effect on feeling, thinking and behaviors. And contacting with nature helps restore the emotional and cognitive resources exhausted. Connectedness to nature is about the relationship between the individual and the nature. It studies the extent to which the individual regards the nature as part of the self, and feels the oneness with nature, which can be one or several aspects of cognition, emotion or experience. Well-being is a subjective definition of positive state, including subjective well-being, psychological well-being and social well-being. Mindfulness is the attention and awareness of their own internal state and the external world with openness and acceptance, including nonjudgmental consciousness and concern on the present. The purpose of this paper is to revise Chinese version of connectedness to nature scale, to explore the relationship connectedness to nature, mindfulness and well-being, in order to provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance to enhance well-being from the perspective of the relationship between human and nature.This study revises connectedness to nature scale and examines its reliability and validity by questionnaire survey in the sample of 450 university students. In three studies of 813 university students, the relationships between connectedness to nature, mindfulness and subjective well-being, connectedness to nature, mindfulness, and psychological well-being, and connectedness to nature, mindfulness and social well-being are explored. It is also tested if mindfulness can be a mediator factor in the relationship between connectedness to nature and different well-being. The results indicate that:(1) The Cronbach coefficient of revised Connectedness to Nature scale was 0.783, the test-retest reliability was 0.901(p<0.01), and the congruent validity was 0.491(p<0.01).(2) Connectedness to nature, mindfulness and subjective well-being is positively associated with each other, mindfulness mediates the relationship between connectedness to nature and subjective well-being.(3) Connectedness to nature, mindfulness and psychological well-being is positively associated with each other, mindfulness mediates the relationship between connectedness to nature and psychological well-being.(4) Connectedness to nature, mindfulness and social well-being is positively associated with each other, mindfulness mediates the relationship between connectedness to nature and social well-being.