Cross-Cultural Validation of A Revised Environmental Identity Scale

Abstract

The environmental identity (EID) scale, first published in 2003, was developed to measure individual differences in a stable sense of interdependence and connectedness with nature. Since then, it has been reliably correlated with measures of environmental behavior and concern. However, the original scale was developed based on U.S. college students, raising questions about its validity for other types of populations. This study revised the EID scale and tested it in five countries (four continents) with a total sample size of 1717 participants. Results support strong internal consistency across all locations. Importantly, EID was significantly correlated with behavior and with environmental concern. This research gives us greater confidence that the EID construct is meaningful across different cultural contexts. Because the revised EID was designed to be relevant to a wider range of people and experiences, it is recommended as a replacement for the 2003 version.

Formación de la identidad profesional frente a la crisis global socioambiental

“…Quienes desarrollan una identidad vinculada al medio ambiente natural, presentan una mayor sensibilidad y respeto por la naturaleza, se preocupan más por los problemas ecológicos, y despliegan mayores conductas de protección hacia el medio natural (Clayton et al, 2021). Desde un enfoque social, una identidad ambientalista implica la identificación de las personas con grupos sociales cuya causa de movilización sea la protección del medio ambiente (Brick & Lai, 2018).…”

“…Desde un enfoque social, una identidad ambientalista implica la identificación de las personas con grupos sociales cuya causa de movilización sea la protección del medio ambiente (Brick & Lai, 2018). Desde una perspectiva psicológica, una identidad ambiental se refiere a la construcción de sentidos y significados sobre sí mismo, en una estrecha conexión con la naturaleza, junto a la creencia de autoeficacia para desplegar un repertorio de conductas de protección ambiental (Clayton et al, 2021). Por otra parte, el término identidad ecológica integra los conceptos anteriores, utilizándose para dar cuenta del desarrollo de una identidad tanto ambientalista como ambiental.…”

“…Por último, una dimensión ecológica de la IP permite que los profesionales se sientan conectados con la naturaleza, desarrollen sentimientos positivos con esta, además de valores ecológicos, para que desde allí orienten un ejercicio profesional de respeto y protección de la naturaleza (Clayton et al, 2021;Rushton, 2021).…”

Do Authentic People Care about the Environment? A View from Two Paradigms

“…During the development of the item pool, some statements were borrowed from works by Markle (2013) and Clayton et al (2021) and subsequently modified (questions were reformulated into statements according to forward and back-translation guidelines ("Process of translation and adaptation of instruments, " n.d.). As a result, the initial pool included 12 items, reflecting both environmental routine actions (e.g., water and power conservation, sorting of waste, reduced car use, refusal of meat products, etc.)…”

“…When conducting CFA, we built a hierarchical model with two uncorrelated firstorder factors and a higher-order factor -Total Ecological Lifestyle. Our choice of the higher-order model, rather than the correlated factors model, is explained by the fact that a person's pro-environmental behavior is considered as an integral construct consisting of several subordinate "traits" (Markle, 2013;Clayton et al, 2021). Accordingly, the structural model should assume the possibility of calculating scores on both the subscales and the overall score, unlike the correlated factors model, which can't incorporate any general factor.…”