BIO-WELL Questionnaire

Abstract

The BIO-WELL scale (Irvine et al., 2023) was developed to measure human wellbeing responses to biodiversity. The scale’s content was developed through a series of deliberative workshops to conceptualize the constructs, an in-depth qualitative analysis, expert panel discussions, and subsequent psychometric analyses. The resulting 17 biodiversity stem questions and five wellbeing response items were evaluated in UK samples of adult participants recruited via a social research company. Factor analysis, item response theory, reliability, and validity results were reported for these items.

Keywords

Environmental Attitudes, Biodiversity, Wellbeing, Environmental Psychology, Well Being, Nature (Environment), Environmental Measures

Authors

Irvine, Katherine N.; Fisher, Jessica C.; Bentley, Phoebe R.; Nawrath, Maximillian; Dallimer, Martin; Austen, Gail E.; Fish, Rob; Davies, Zoe G.

Purpose

The purpose of this scale is for application in research, policy, and practice to further develop investigators’ conceptual and empirical understanding of the biodiversity-health relationship and to assess the effectiveness of related interventions.

Validity

Item Response Theory: The graded response model demonstrated the best model fit. Evaluation of item discrimination values, model fit statistics, and infit and outfit values from the graded response model suggested the retention of five out of eight wellbeing items.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity: BIO-WELL mean scores were related to, yet distinct from, the mean scores for resilience, self-esteem, and affect measures.

Concurrent Validity: Concurrent validity was supported through differentiation between participant subgroups. Those who had experienced woodlands frequently as a child or teenager, or who felt that visiting the outdoors was important, reported significantly higher overall BIO-WELL scores.

Predictive Validity: BIO-WELL accounted for a significant increase in the variance explained in three dependent variables (considering spending time outdoors as important, noticing nature more, and identifying more closely with nature), after controlling for sociodemographic covariates.

Reliability

Internal Consistency: Cronbach’s (1951) coefficient alpha for each biodiversity stem question was high, and item-total correlations were moderate to strong, confirming that BIO-WELL represents a biopsychosocial-spiritual model of wellbeing.

Factor Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis: Using principal axis factoring, the authors compared 1-factor, 2-factor, and 3-factor solutions. However, upon examining the loadings and model fit statistics together, the authors found statistical support for the number of factors differed for each biodiversity stem question.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis: The proposed 1-factor model suggested a relatively good fit for the data. Each of the biodiversity stem questions met thresholds for fair model fit for most of the model fit statistics.

Instrument: BIO-WELL

Test Type: Original Inventory/Questionnaire

Format: Scores for wellbeing response items are quantified according to where participants position a counter on a visual analogue scale (VAS) (0–100). Low scores (0–49) indicate a positive wellbeing response, high scores (51–100) a negative response, and a score of 50 is considered neutral. Scores are then inverted to aid interpretability (0–49 = negative wellbeing; 51–100 = positive wellbeing). BIO-WELL scores are then calculated as the mean of all wellbeing response items for each biodiversity stem question. The administration method is electronic.

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older)

Population Details: Respondents were adult participants recruited online from the United Kingdom.

Test Methodology: Test Validity, Concurrent Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Predictive Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Item Response Theory.

Keywords

Environmental Attitudes, Biodiversity, Wellbeing

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

• Irvine, Katherine N.: orcid.org/0000-0001-8860-2783

• Austen, Gail E.: orcid.org/0000-0001-6005-4869

Affiliation:

• Irvine, Katherine N.: James Hutton Institute, Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Department

• Fisher, Jessica C.: University of Kent, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology

• Bentley, Phoebe R.: University of Kent, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology

• Nawrath, Maximillian: University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment Sustainability Research Institute

• Dallimer, Martin: University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment Sustainability Research Institute

• Austen, Gail E.: University of Kent, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology

• Fish, Rob: University of Kent, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology

• Davies, Zoe G.: University of Kent, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology

Email Addresses:

• Irvine, Katherine N.: [email protected]

• Fisher, Jessica C.: No data is Available

• Bentley, Phoebe R.: No data is Available

• Nawrath, Maximillian: No data is Available

• Dallimer, Martin: No data is Available

• Austen, Gail E.: No data is Available

• Fish, Rob: No data is Available

• Davies, Zoe G.: No data is Available

Correspondence Address:

• Irvine, Katherine N.: James Hutton Institute, Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Department, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, AB15 8QH, [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: May use for Research/Teaching

Commercial Use: No

Fee: No

Test Year: 2023

References

Irvine, K. N., Fisher, J. C., Bentley, P. R., Nawrath, M., Dallimer, M., Austen, G. E., Fish, R., & Davies, Z. G. (2023). BIO-WELL: The development and validation of a human wellbeing scale that measures responses to biodiversity. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 85, 1–15. doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101921

Web Site: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Items of the BIO-WELL

This measure consists of 17 biodiversity stem questions and five wellbeing response items. Test items are available, and their location in the source is 2023-38350-001, Table 1, Page 7; 2023-38350-001, Table 2, Page 7.

Biodiversity Attributes

This section delineates the attributes of biodiversity, categorizing them by their thematic aspects and corresponding investigative questions.

Note: Participants were first asked to imagine themselves in a woodland setting and to think about the biodiversity, using the wording, “For each of the following questions, imagine yourself in a nearby woodland at this time of year. Please think about the living things, including the plants, fungi and animals (but not pets, horses, cows, sheep), in that woodland.”

Wellbeing Domains

This section outlines the dimensions of wellbeing, presenting both positive and negative anchors for each domain.

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Note: Responses are made on a Visual Analogue Scale with positive and negative linguistic anchors placed either side of a 100 mm line, allowing participants to indicate their wellbeing along the line.

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These items were removed from the final scale.