Psychometric Properties of the Measure of Love for Nature

Abstract

Several instruments have been developed to measure the relationship between human beings and nature, one of which is the Love and Care for Nature Scale. Three studies were conducted with the aim of analyzing the functioning of the scale. In the first study (n = 51) the components of the concept were analyzed. It showed a large cluster formed by two others (connectedness and well-being), considered “love for nature”, and one two-items cluster referring to “care”. Taking into account the “love” items, a second study (n = 1071) was conducted to analyze the psychometric properties of the scale using item response theory and factor analysis, finding that ten of the items present adequate psychometric properties. A third study (n = 151) shows that the ten-item scale has adequate levels of reliability and validity. Consequently, the reduced scale is an adequate measure of love for nature, while an interesting future research line would be to separately study the scale’s two components.